X Ray and X Ray Diffraction

X-rays is a form of electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (3×1016 Hz to 3×1019 Hz) and energies in the range 100 eV to 100 keV.

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (27 March 1845 – 10 February 1923) was a German physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as X-rays or Röntgen rays

Characteristic of X ray

•shorter in wavelength than UV rays • longer than gamma rays

• X-rays with photon energies above 5-10 keV (below 0.2-0.1 nm wavelength), are called hard X-rays.• X-ray with lower energy are

called soft X-rays

Production of X Ray

X-rays are produced when the electrons are suddenly decelerated upon collision with the metal target; these x-rays are commonly called brehmsstrahlung or "braking radiation".

If the bombarding electrons have sufficient energy, they can knock an electron out of an inner shell of the target metal atoms. Then electrons from higher states drop down to fill the vacancy, emitting x-ray photons with precise energies determined by the electron energy levels.

Properties of X Ray

• X-ray photons carry enough energy to ionize atoms and disrupt molecular bonds

• Hard X-rays can traverse relatively thick objects without being much absorbed or scattered.

• X-rays have much shorter wavelength than visible light, which makes it possible to probe structures much smaller than what can be seen using a normal microscope

Uses of X Ray

• Radiographs- the use of X-rays to view a non-uniformly composed material such as the human body. By using the physical properties of the ray an image can be developed which displays areas of different density and composition.

• Computed tomography- is a medical imaging procedure that utilizes computer-processed X-rays to produce tomographic images or 'slices' of specific areas of the body.

• X-ray crystallography- a method of determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline atoms cause a beam of X-rays to diffract into many specific directions.

• X-ray astronomy

• Airport security

X ray diffraction

• the scattering of X-rays on contact with matter, resulting in changes in radiation intensity, which is used for studying atomic structure

• the scattering of x-rays by crystal atoms, producing a diffraction pattern that yields information about the structure of the crystal. X-ray diffraction is used in x-ray crystallography .