Cathode Ray Revisited

Shadowgram of the bones of a hand

on a phosphorescent screen
Wilhelm Rntgen
Lecture 14
Electromagnetic Radiation: A New View
Photoelectric process: an electron in a metal absorbs a photon,
overcoming the binding energy of the metal and becoming a
free electron.
What is the inverse process?
A free electron loses its kinetic energy and
emits a photon!
Lecture 14
Bremsstrahlung Radiation
Electromagnetic radiation emitted by decelerating charged
particles.
h!
Equivalently, in the context of quantization of light, the electron
is said to emit a photon.
For instance, an electron is deflected by a nucleus, producing
Bremsstrahlung radiation in the process.
Lecture 14
Quantum Interpretation
! h K K = "
2 1
Energy conservation:
Prediction: there exists a maximum on the frequency of the
radiation, when all of the initial kinetic energy of the electron
is converted to that of a single photon (i.e., K
2
=0).
The prediction is confirmed by experimental measurements.
In other words, the observed spectrum of bremsstrahlung
radiation does exhibit a cut-off at high energies.
Lecture 14
Experimental Setup
Schematics:
Lecture 14
X-ray Production
Electrons are emitted from the heated filament (cathode)
via the thermionic emission process
The electrons are accelerated toward the anode by a large
electric field
The electrons bombard the target and bremsstrahlung
radiation is produced in the process
This process operates in the X-ray regime because the
radiation has to be energetic enough to escape from the
target
A fraction of the kinetic energy of the electrons may go
into heating the target.
Lecture 14
Spectral Cut-Off
The kinetic energy acquired by an electron across the entire
field:
eV K =
1
The most energetic photon is produced by an electron whose
entire kinetic energy is converted into that of a single photon,
i.e.,
max 2 1
0 , ! " = = K eV K
Lecture 14
Duane-Hunt Rule
V
h
e
h eV = ! =
max max
" "
V
m V
V e
hc ! "
= =
#6
min
10 24 . 1 1
$
Duane-Hunt rule:
Example: kV V 35 =
m
V
m V
11
3
6
min
10 54 . 3
10 35
10 24 . 1
!
!
" =
"
# "
= $
We have
for
Lecture 14
Another Way of Determining h
O
!
max

V
slope = e/h
Measuring !
max
at different
accelerating voltages provides
yet another way of determining
the Plancks constant h, as
shown.
A useful conversion of units:
) (
4 . 12
A
keV hc
h E
! !
" = = =
For instance, #
min
= 0.3 A corresponds to E
max
= 40 keV

Lecture 14
Matter and Anti-matter
Discovery of positrons, anti-electron particles, in the cosmic
rays. Except for being positively charged, a positron
possesses all other properties of an electron, such as mass,
spin, and so on.
Matter and anti-matter can annihilate to produce photons.
The inverse process of annihilation is to create a particle
and an anti-particle from a photon.
Discovery of other anti-particles, such as anti-proton,
anti-neutron, and so on. In fact, all elementary particles
have their anti-particle counterparts.
Lecture 14
Electron-Position Annihilation
! ! + " +
+ #
e e
When an electron and a position move sufficiently slowly
with relative to each, they can form a bound orbit. As the
orbit decays, due to the loss of energy to radiation, the orbit
shrinks and eventually the electron and the position annihilate
to produce to two gamma ray photons which move away
from each other along opposite directions, as required by
the conservation of momentum.
The conservation of energy requires that the energy of each
gamma ray photon is equal to that of the rest mass of an
electron (or positron), i.e., 511 keV.
e
+

e
-

" "