Question

The tube in a medical research X-ray unit uses lead (Z=82) as it's target.

Assume the electrons are accelerated through the voltage calculated in part (2) (part 2=89230 V). What is the wavelength of the K_α line?

λ =

Now assume that the electrons are accelerated through twice the voltage calculated in part (2) (part 2= 89230 V). What is the wavelength of the K_α line?

Answer 1

When high energy electrons incident of metal target, an high energy radiation is emitted called X - rays. The spectra of X rays have few peaks called characteristics x rays along with continous spectrum . These characteristics x rays are signature of the material . The energies of these x rays depend on the energies of electron states in the particular atom and, thus, are characteristic of that element: Every element has it own set of x-ray energies. The wavelength of K- should not depend on the incident energy of electrons. On increasing the accelerating voltages of the electrons, definitely electrons will gain more energy; and that more energy also result in more energetic X rays but the characteristic peaks should remain same. That's why on twice the accelerating voltage , the wavelength of K- should remain same.

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