X-Ray Target Interactions

The first target interaction that occurs is heat production. It makes up approximately 99.8% of
the kinetic energy that is produced. What occurs in heat production is that the electrons are simply
getting excited. When they build up minute amounts of energy they only release a small amount as well,
this inhibits them form creating a diagnostic photon.

The second target interaction is called a Bremsstrahlung interaction. In this interaction an

electron interacts with the force field of the nucleus. It is possible for the electron to come in contact
with the nucleus, but it does not occur often because the nuclear force field is too great, it takes a much
higher energy electron to break into that force field. When an incident electron enters the atom,
heading toward the nucleus, bends into a different direction, it creates a photon. This change in
direction causes the electron to lose energy, shifting it to the form of a proton. The smaller the angle of
deflection the greater the photon energy will be. The Bremsstrahlung photon will then interact with
another atom, creating more and more photons until it loses enough energy to become part of the
electron flow. The energy of the photon is determined by the difference of the incident electrons
energy, versus the Bremsstrahlung photons energy. This could leave the photon with all of the
originating energy, its peak kilovoltage, or it could be so small it cannot be easily measured.
Approximately 80-90% of interactions are Bremsstrahlung. Below is an image depicting what occurs
inside of an atom when an electron has a Bremsstrahlung interaction.
 Differing from Brems interactions are characteristic interactions. Characteristic interactions
involve an incident electron as well; however instead of interacting with the force field of the nucleus,
the electron interacts with one of the inner shells of the atom. Usually this will be a K or an L-shell. If the
electron interacts with another electron on one of the inner shells the more higher energy photons are
created. When the incident electron knocks out the inner electron the atom wants to immediately fill
that empty spot in its orbit. What typically happens is an electron from one of the outer shells will move
down, this will continue to happen until the atom has stabilized itself. When the outer electrons move
to the empty inner space this interaction creates characteristic photons and is known as a characteristic
cascade. These photons energies are the difference between the binding energy of the outer and inner
shells that were involved in the interaction. For example, the binding energy of the K-shell of tungsten is
59.0 keV, if this electron is knocked out and an electron from the L-shell, with a keV of 9.6, fills its spot
the characteristic photon will have an energy of 49.4 keV. Characteristic interactions make up
approximately 10-20 of interactions. Below is a picture explaining the characteristic interaction.