Re: Production of Synchrotron Radiation

[Brian McInnes <bmcinnes@PNC.COM.AU>]

Isn't there braking radiation (bremmstrahlung), which gives
a continuous spectrum of x rays with a cut-off frequency
corresponding to the accelerating voltage, as well as the
characteristic x-ray spectrum.
(As you can see, Jim, I agree with your remark on the use of
hyphens in writing x ray.)
Brian McInnes
----------
> From: Jim Green <JMGreen@SISNA.COM>
> To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
> Subject: Re: Production of Synchrotron Radiation
> Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 7:15 PM

> 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