PRODUCTION OF X-RAYS

In an X-ray tube, electrons emitted by the filament (cathode) are raised to a high energy level by applying a
suitable potential difference between the filament (cathode) and the target (anode) and thereby the high energy
electrons hit the target surface which is usually made up of Tungsten. The electrons penetrate the surface layer
of the target and interact with the atoms of the target. Electrons do suffer many interactions before they loss
their energy and come to rest. The loss of energy of electrons is of two types: (1) Collision losses, (2) Radiation
losses. In collision losses, the interactions take place with outer shell electrons and in radiation losses,
interactions occur with nucleus (composed of protons & neutrons) and inner shell electrons on the atoms.
The types of interactions of the high-energy hitting electrons with the target atoms are:
(1) The primary electron (hitting electron) interacts with an outer shell electron and raises it to an optical
orbit. The energy loss of the primary electron is only a few electron-volts which is transferred to the outer shell
electron. If the target is of gaseous form then visible light is emitted from the excited atom before it returns to
ground state of energy. And in solid and liquid targets this energy is released as heat.
(2) The primary electron may cause ejection of outer shell electron (these are having very little binding
energy and hence called free electrons) from the atom and thereby ionizing the atom to a positive ion and
producing a negative electron which is capable of interacting with atoms as the primary electrons. These ejected
electrons are called delta rays. The energy loss in this type of interaction is greater than that in previous type of
interaction.
(3) The primary electron may interact with an inner shell electron (K-shell, L-shell) and causes its ejection
from the atom. The energy loss of the primary electron is equal to the binding energy specific for the shell plus
the kinetic energy of the shell electron. Now the empty space in the shell is taken up by an electron from an
outer shell and in this process the electron emits a single-energy X-ray photon (i.e. the extra energy of the outer
shell electron is emitted as X-ray). This radiation is called characteristic radiation which has an energy
characteristic of the electron shell (characteristic K-radiation, L-radiation etc).
 (4) The primary electron approaches very close to the nucleus and due to Colombian interaction between the
positive nucleus and the negative electron and the electron is made to orbit around the nucleus partially and
ultimately recedes with much reduced velocity and energy. This loss of energy appears as a photon of radiation.
This radiation produced by sudden breaking or deceleration of the electron is called Bremsstrahlung.

At low energy, most of the energy is lost due to collision loss specially if the target is of low atomic number
and mostly heat is produced. But at high energy and especially with target material of high atomic number
radiation loss accounts for much of the energy loss and hence less heat is produced.
The amount of collision loss is directly related to the number of electrons per gram of target material. Since
in materials with high atomic number, most of the electrons are tightly bound to the nucleus because of higher
positive charge there, lesser amount of electrons are available for the types of interaction causing collision loss.
[Number of electrons per gram = N × Z/A; where N= Avogadro number, Z=Atomic number, A= Mass
number. Z/A for lighter elements is 0.5 while that for heavy materials is ≈ 0.4. Hence the number of electrons
per gram of heavy material is about 20% less than in light elements and as a result, less number of electrons are
present in the path of primary electron]