• Christensen, Chapter 2C

George David
Associate Professor
Department of Radiology
Medical College of1Georgia
 The Atomic Nucleus

• Protons + +
+ Charges
# protons = atomic # (Z)

• Neutrons ~ ~
 No charge ~
 Mass about the same as proton

Atomic Weight(mass)= # protons + # neutrons

2
 * kVp = kilovolts peak
• peak kilovoltage applied
across x-ray tube kVp

• voltage applied across

x-ray tube pulses and Single Phase

varies
 single phase
 three phase
kVp

Three Phase 3
 keV = kilo-electron volt
• energy of an electron
• Kinetic energy
• Higher energy electron
moves faster +
• Electrons can be
manipulated by electric
fields
 Accelerated
 Steered

4
 Orbital Electrons
• Electrons
- charges
very small mass compared with protons /
neutrons
• Electrons reside only at certain
energy levels or Shells L
Designations start at K shell K
-
K shell closest to nucleus
~ +
L shell next closest ~ +
Shells proceed up from K, L, M, N, etc. + ~
Except for K shell, all shells contain sub-shells
-
-

5
 Binding Energy
• energy required to remove orbital
electron from atom
• Negative electrons attracted to L
positive nucleus K
-
• more binding energy for shells ~ +
~ +
closer to nucleus + ~
 K shell has highest binding force
-
• higher atomic # materials (higher Z) -

result in more binding energy

 more positive charge in nucleus

6
 Electron Shells (cont.)

• Electrons can only reside in a

shell
 electron has exactly the energy associated with
its shell
 electrons attempt to reside in lowest available
energy shell L
K
-
~ +
~ +
+ ~
-
-
- 7
*
The Shell Game
• Electrons can move from shell to
shell
• to move to higher energy shell
requires energy input equal to
difference between shells
L
K Requires
energy
- input!
~ + -
~ +
+ ~

-
8
-
 The Shell Game (cont.)
• to move to a lower energy shell
requires the release of energy
equal to the difference between
shells
 characteristic x-rays
L
K
-
~ +
~ +
+ ~
Energy
released - -
-

9
 X-Ray Production(cont.)

• X-Rays are
produced in the
x-ray tube by
two distinct
processes
 Characteristic
radiation
 Bremsstrahlung

10
 Characteristic Radiation
• Occurs whenever electrons L
drop into lower shell K
-
• Inner shell has lower energy ~ +
~ +
state + ~

• Energy difference between - -

-
shells emitted as
characteristic x-ray
 0-28% of total x-ray beam energy

11
 Characteristic Radiation
• High speed electron
from cathode slams +
into target knocking
out inner shell orbital
electron L
• orbital electron K
-
removed from atom ~ +
~ +
• electrons from higher + ~
energy shells cascade
down to fill vacancies - -
-
• Characteristic x-rays
emitted.
12
 Characteristic Radiation
• Consists only of discrete x-
ray energies corresponding
to energy difference between L
electron shells of target K
• Specific energies are -
~ +
characteristic of target ~ +
material + ~

• for tungsten 59 keV - -

corresponds to the difference -

in energy between K and L

shells

13
 Characteristic Radiation (cont.)
• threshold energy
required for incident
electron (from cathode)
to eject orbital electron =
L
electron’s binding
energy -
K

~ +
~ +
+ ~

14
 Bremsstrahlung
• interaction of moving electron with
nucleus of target atoms
• Positive nucleus causes moving
electron to change speed / direction
• Kinetic energy lost
• Emitted in form of Bremsstrahlung x-ray
L
K
-
~ +
~ +
+ ~

- -
-
15
 Bremsstrahlung (cont.)
• Bremsstrahlung means braking
radiation
• Moving electrons have many
Bremsstrahlung reactions
» small amount of energy lost with each

L
K
-
~ +
~ +
+ ~

- -
-
16
 Bremsstrahlung (cont.)
• Energy lost by moving electron is
random & depends on
 distance from nucleus
 charge (Z) of nucleus

• Bremsstrahlung Energy Spectrum

0 - peak kilovoltage (kVp) applied to x-ray tube
 most x-ray photons low energy
 lowest energy photons don’t escape tube
» easily filtered by tube enclosures or added filtration

17
 Beam Intensity

• Beam intensity = # photons in beam X energy per photon

• Units
 Roentgens (R) per unit time
 Measure of ionization rate of air

• Depends on
 kVp
 mA
 target material
 filtration
 waveform

18
 Intensity & Target Material

• higher target atomic # results in

greater x-ray production efficiency
 higher positive charge of nucleus causes more
Bremsstrahlung
• discrete energies of characteristic
radiation determined by anode
material
 Energy differences between shells
 molybdenum used in mammo
» characteristic radiation of 17 & 19 keV

19
 Intensity &
Technique
• beam intensity proportional to mA
• beam Intensity ~ proportional to kVp2

filament
+
voltage
source
high
voltage
source
20
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