MARIKINA POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE

Brgy. Sta. Elena, Marikina City

SY: 2017-2018 1st semester

Written Report in
X-RAY PRODUCTION AND
DIFFRACTION

Submitted by:
April F. Fenolan
BTTE IV-I Physics

Submitted to:
Mr. Edward Alonzo
Instructor
 X-RAY is an electromagnetic wave of high energy and very short wavelength, which is able to pass
through many materials opaque to light.

WILHELM CONRAD ROENTGEN - He is a mechanical engineer and physicist. He

discovered X-rays in 1895.

ROENTGEN BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Roentgen was born on March 27, 1845 at Lennep in the Lower Rhine Province of Germany. Her mother
is from Amsterdam and his Father is a German.
Rntgen is a nature lover and good in making mechanical devices.
Roentgen was expelled in his school in Utrect Netherlands in 1865 because he was accused that he
made a caricature on one of his teacher.
Roentgen enrolled in Polytechnic at Zurich and take mechanical engineering course even without
diploma.
Roentgen became professor of physics at the universities of Strassbourg (187679), Wrttemberg,
Giessen (187988), Wrzburg (18881900), and Munich (190020).
He is known for the discovery of x-rays. In 1901, Rntgen was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in
Physics.
The roentgen rays (x-rays) and element 111 roentgenium was named after him.
 ----X-RAY PRODUCTION----

Wilhelm Roentgen discovered x-rays as he found out that a highly penetrating radiation of an unknown
nature is produced when fast electrons impinge on matter.

Cathode Ray Tube

Production of x-rays starts when the high voltage supply is connected to the cathode of the tube. The
cathode is a filament which is negatively charged, so it is associated with electrons. As the power supply
heats up the electrons in the cathode, the electrons will accelerate. That process is called Thermionic
Emission. As the electron accelerates and due to the magnetic field between the cathode and anode, the
electrons will reach the heavy metal target or the anode material.

Accelerated electron will bombard the electrons on the atom of

the anode material causes that electron to be ejected. As the electron
ejected, the space of the ejected electron will be vacant. The electrons
from higher energy level will go down to lower energy level to fill that
vacant space. To keep the conservation of energy, the kinetic energy of
the moving electron will be converted as photons or x-rays. This
process is also known as characteristic xrays.

BREMSSTRAHLUNG (BRAKING RADIATION):

-is electromagnetic radiation produced by the deceleration of a charged particle when deflected by
another charged particle.

In bremsstrahlung process, the electron emitted from the

cathode will reach the anode material. As the electron is closest to
the nucleus of the atom in the anode, it will experienced
decceleration due to the collision of the other electrons or atom in
the anode. And so, as the electron deccelerate, the electron will
deflect. Deflection of atom means theres also changed in kinetic
energy. The kinetic energy of the electron will be converted as
photons or radiation.
 IS X-RAY PRODUCTION IS INVERSE PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT?
Yes. In photoelectric effect, as the photons hits a metal target, the photons of light can transfer energy
to electrons. But in x-ray production, the electrons will hit the metal target (anode) to produce photons.

First medical X-ray by Wilhelm Rntgen of his wife Anna Bertha Ludwig's hand.

CHARACTERISTICS OF X-RAYS:
X-rays are high in frequency and can travel at the speed of light.
X-rays has no mass and charge
X-rays travels in straight lines
X-rays wavelength is about from 0.01 to 10 nm

Kinetic energy to produce photon is equal to:

eV =

Where: eV = electron volts (1.609 x 10-19 J)
h = Plancks constant (6.626 x 10-34 J s)
c = speed of light (3.0 x 108 m/s)
= wavelenght of the x-ray

Sample Problem:

Electrons in an x-ray tube accelerate through a potential difference of 10.0 x 103 V before striking a
target. If an electron produces one photon on impact with the target, what is the minimum wavelength of
the resulting x rays?

Solution:

eV =


=

APPLICATION OF X-RAYS:

Medicine The x-rays are used in CT scan to cure cancers, tumors and other diseases
in tissues inside the body. It is also used in x-ray tests to examine the body parts of the
human if theres something wrong inside theri body.

Security Scanners used in entrances of every establishments uses x-ray to scan if

theres any harmful metal stuffs inside the bag.

Counterfeit Arts They uses x-ray to check some details of an old art (paintings, pots,
sculptures, etc.) that has been removed due to its oldiness.

----XRAY DIFFRACTION----

Diffraction is the bending of waves around obstacles and openings.

 MAX VON LAUE (18791960) is a german physicist and he studied about
diffraction of light and wondered if x-rays could also be diffracted.

LAUE, FRIEDERICH, KNIPPING EXPERIMENT:

The Laue and friends experiment is inspired to the double slit

experiment by Thomas Young. The X-rays from the x-ray tube will
pass through the small slit of Lead Screen. Lead is a good
absorption of X-rays because it has high atomic weight which is
dense. The xrays that are not absorbed by the lead screen will
pass through the thin crystal. The screen is place at the front of
crystal to seen what structure or image did they get in the
experiment.
Von Laues Experiment

This is the pattern formed in the screen as the x-ray pass through
the thin crystal. Laue conclude that x-rays were waves by diffracting
them with a crystals. He won a noble prize in physics in 1914.

Crystals consist of planes of atoms that are spaced a distance

apart, but can be resolved into many atomic planes.
BRAGGS LAW:

Proposed by a father-and-son tandem, William

Henry Bragg and Lawrence Bragg in 1913.
William Henry Bragg imade an x-ray spectrometry
and known for scattering techniques.
Lawrence proposed the fomula for the Braggs Law.
They won noble prize in 1915 in Physics for their
work on crystallography.

Diffracted rays that are not in phase is DESTRUCTIVE INTERFERENCE.

Diffracted rays that are in phase in CONSTRUCTIVE.

Here is the diagram of the Braggs Experiment

The Lines AB and GH are the incident x-rays.

As these x-rays hits the crystal surface, they
reflect. The lines BC and EF is the reflected x-
rays. d is the distance of the lattices or the
layers inside the crystals.

The traingles HE and IE is what we called path

difference. Or the extra path traveled by the
x-rays.

HBE Sin =
IBE Sin =


HE = dSin IE = dSin

n = HE + IE Wherein:
n = any integer
= dSin + dSin
= Wavelength
n = 2dSin Braggs Formula d = spacing bet. Layer of the atom
= angle of incident ray & surface of the crystals

SAMPLE PROBLEM:

X-rays of wavelength 28.8 nm are scattered from a crystal with a grazing angle of 15.0 Assume that it is in the
2nd order for this process. Calculate the spacing between the crystal planes.

n = 2dSin

d=
2
(2)(1.28)
=
2 15

d = 1.96835911877 nm
d = 1.97 nm
 SIGNIFICANCE OF X-RAY DIFFRACTION

Discovery of the wave nature of X-rays.

Leads to the study of atomic structure of materials and structure of atoms.
X-ray spectroscopy
Find the crystal structure of an unknown material.
Measure the average spacing between layers or rows of atoms

---- ASSIGNMENTS ----

1. What are the components of the anode and cathode in the cathode tube?
- Cathode is a filament which produces electrons because it is negatively charge.
- Anode converts the electrons kinetic energy to its either photons or heat.
- Most x-ray tubes uses pure tungsten as the anode because of its ability to maintain its strength at
high temperatures.
- Molybdenum, graphite, alloy of tungsten and rhodium is also used as anode material.

2. What is thermionic emission?

- The process by which electrons are emitted from the surface of a metal when external heat energy
is applied.
- The high voltage connected on the cathode tube will heat up the electrons on the cathode that
makes them accelerate.

3. Factors that affect electrons to accelerate

- High Voltage power supply
- Thermionic Emission
- Vacuum chamber
- Anode is positively charged

4. Why electron from High energy level filled vacant space in lower energy as the electron from lower
energy level ejected?
- Because electrons are always attracted to the nuclues. And also to conserve the energy of the
electrons.

5. Process of characteristic xrays

- The accelerated electron from the cathode will bombard the electron of the atom in the anode.
- As the electron ejected from the atom, the space of that electron will be leave vacant.
- Electrons from high energy level will move to this vacant spot in the lower energy level.
- The kinetic energy of the moving electron will be converted as x-rays.

In Characteristic x-ray, the energy level are labeled as K,L,M. Electrons from K-level are usually the
electrons being ejected. So when the electrons from K-Level is ejected, electrons from L will go down to the
K-level to fill that space. The Kinetic energy of the electron from L-level will be x-rays or what they call K-alpha
radiation.

6. Allowable x-ray dosage to people.

PROCEDURE APPROXIMATE EFFECTIVE

RADIATION DOSE
(mSv = millisievert)

Computed Tomography (CT)-Abdomen 10 mSv

and Pelvis Milliesievert is a measure of the
absorption of radiation by the
Radiography (X-ray)-Spine 1.5 mSv
human body. More sensitive tissues
Computed Tomography (CT)-Head 2 mSv is, more millisievert needed.

Computed Tomography (CT)-Spine 6 mSv

Computed Tomography (CT)-Chest 7 mSv
Intraoral X-ray 0.005 mSv
Coronary Computed Tomography 12 mSv
Angiography (CTA)

7. How many times can a person undergo x-ray test?

- People should undergo x-rays 6 months after the previous x-ray test.

8. Is the amount of voltage are the same in different parts of the body to be x-ray?
- No. The amount/dose of x-ray to be receive by the body is the same to the amount of voltage that
is connected on the apparatus.

9. Braggs experiment
- Conducted by the father & son tandem, William Henry and Lawrence Bragg. They study if crystal
planes diffract xrays.
- Henry is responsible for the x-ray spectrometer. Lawrence did the computation and proposed the
formula. (Braggs Law)
- Their first attempt on the experiment was failed after seeing the reflections of the incident x-ray in
the NaCl is not interfered constructively.

10. Braggs equation (n = 2d sin)

n = is the order of the scattered beam

11. Braggs planes