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Notebook 14 Revised

This document summarizes three main types of interactions that occur when electrons interact with an x-ray target: heat, bremsstrahlung, and characteristic. Heat is the most common interaction but does not produce useful x-rays. Bremsstrahlung occurs when electrons slow down near the target nucleus and produce x-ray photons with energy equal to the electron's initial kinetic energy minus its exit energy. Characteristic x-rays are produced when an electron knocks out an inner shell electron, causing an outer shell electron to fill the vacancy and release a photon. The percentage of useful bremsstrahlung and characteristic photons depends on the incident electron's kinetic energy.

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86 views

Notebook 14 Revised

This document summarizes three main types of interactions that occur when electrons interact with an x-ray target: heat, bremsstrahlung, and characteristic. Heat is the most common interaction but does not produce useful x-rays. Bremsstrahlung occurs when electrons slow down near the target nucleus and produce x-ray photons with energy equal to the electron's initial kinetic energy minus its exit energy. Characteristic x-rays are produced when an electron knocks out an inner shell electron, causing an outer shell electron to fill the vacancy and release a photon. The percentage of useful bremsstrahlung and characteristic photons depends on the incident electron's kinetic energy.

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Notebook #14

REVISED
X-Ray Target Interactions

Interaction
Type
Heat (not
useful)

Description

Bremsstrahlung
(useful)

Characteristic
(useful)

Effect of keV

Represents > 99% of target interactions


Incident electron excites target outershell electron (no ionization)
Produces infrared radiation (heat)
Incident electron approaches target
nucleus, slows down, changes direction
Produces bremsstrahlung x-ray photon
Br. energy = entrance kinetic energy
exit kinetic energy
The closer the electron gets to nucleus,
the higher the Br. energy photon
Incident electron knocks target innershell electron from orbit (ionization)
Target outer-shell electron fills innershell vacancy until atom stabilizes
Produces characteristic x-ray photons
Ch. energy = inner-shell binding energy
outer-shell binding energy

Below 70 keV: 100% of


useful beam = Br. photons,
0% Ch. photons
Between 80-100 keV: 8090% of useful beam = Br.
photons, 10-20% Ch.
photons
Tungsten (W) requires >
69.5 keV incident electrons
to create Ch. photons
Average useful beam
photon keV = 30-40% kVp

Bremsstrahlung
x-ray photon

Incident electron
Incident electron

K-shell (59.0 keV photon)


L-shell (9.6 keV photon)
M-shell
Characteristic
N-shell
x-ray photons
O-shell

Infrared radiation
Incident electron

17

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