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Average X-Ray Energy from Optimized Tantalum / Carbon Bremsstrahlung Converters

Depriest, Kendall D.

A set of coupled electron/photon radiation transport calculations were performed on optimized Ta / C converters due to questions about previous work at Sandia National Laboratories by Halbleib and Sanford. Generally, the results of the previous calculations were confirmed. However, new relationships between the incident electron beam energy and the average energy of a bremsstrahlung x-ray spectrum for the converters have been defined for the incident electron energy range of 50 keV to 15 MeV as well as for the narrower range of 50 keV to 1 MeV. The relationships were developed by bracketing the results of radiation transport calculations rather than by a rigorous mathematical fit to the data. Additional data such as the total x-ray or the energy spectra of the x-ray fluence exiting the Ta / C converters are available upon request.