SACE Stage 2 Physics — Light & Atoms 3.2

Bremsstrahlung

A single electron, fired from a heated cathode through a chosen tube voltage, approaches a single target atom. The atom's nucleus pulls the electron off its straight path; as the electron brakes, an x-ray photon is emitted. Different incoming paths brake the electron by different amounts. The spectrometer strip along the bottom sorts each emitted photon by its energy.