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Re: Production of Synchrotron Radiation



At 12:57 AM 2/12/99 +0100, you wrote:
|Another precursor of radiating electrons is an x-ray tube. Electrons
|gain kinetic energy in the vacuum and loose it during the rapid
|deceleration in the anode.

Well, yes, but it isn't quite that simple: The accelerated electron
collides with an atom of the target material and excites the orbital
electrons -- which collapse back to their quiescent state and then emit
photons ie x rays -- just like in any photo-emission process. This is why
the target material is selected for the x-ray wavelength/energy desired.
(BTW "x rays" is not correctly hyphenated unless it is an adjective as in
the above quote.)

Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen