Bremsstrahlung energy spectra from electrons with kinetic energy 1 keV–10 GeV incident on screened nuclei and orbital electrons of neutral atoms with Z = 1–100

Abstract

A comprehensive set of bremsstrahlung cross sections (differential in the energy of the emitted photons) is tabulated. The set includes results for electrons with energies from 1 keV to 10 GeV incident on neutral atoms with atomic numbers Z = 1 to 100. For bremsstrahlung in the Coulomb field of the atomic nucleus, use was made of (a) results of Pratt, Tseng, and collaborators based on numerical phase-shift calculations for the screened Coulomb potential at energies below 2 MeV; and (b) the analytical high-energy theory (with Coulomb corrections) of Davies, Bethe, Maximon, and Olsen at energies above 50 MeV, supplemented by the Elwert Coulomb correction factor and the theory of the high-frequency limit given by Jabbur and Pratt. In the high-energy region, the effect of screening was included by the use of Hartree-Fock atomic form factors. A numerical interpolation scheme, applied to suitably scaled cross sections, was used to bridge the gap between the low-energy and high-energy theoretical results, and thus to obtain improved cross sections in the intermediate-energy region 2 to 50 MeV. Bremsstrahlung in the field of the atomic electrons was calculated according to the theory of Haug, combined with screening corrections derived from Hartree-Fock incoherent scattering factors.