Bremsstrahlung of 5–25-keV electron impact with Al, Cu, Ag, Te, and Au thick solid targets with no polarization contribution

Abstract

Bremsstrahlung spectra generated by electrons with incident energies of 5--25 keV bombarding thick targets of $\mathrm{Al}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(Z=13), \mathrm{Cu}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(Z=29), \mathrm{Ag}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(Z=47), \mathrm{Te}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(Z=52)$, and $\mathrm{Au}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(Z=79)$ are measured with high accuracy. Comparing the experimental spectra with the simulated spectra obtained from the Monte Carlo code penelope, it is found that they are in excellent agreement. The penelope code contains only the cross sections for ordinary bremsstrahlung, while disregarding polarization bremsstrahlung. The results quite definitely indicate that there is no polarization bremsstrahlung contribution to the x-ray radiation spectra produced by incident electrons with thick solid targets for the x-ray energies of interest in this paper ($g1\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{keV}$).