On the role of secondary interactions in the production of bremsstrahlung spectra from a thick target

Bremsstrahlung emission, or radiation loss, is the dominant mechanism of energy dissipation of electrons at relativistic energies greater than a few MeV when it is subjected to acceleration in the field of the nucleus or of the electrons. In this study, the Monte Carlo calculations for bremsstrahlung spectra have been described for the case of a thick tungsten target with incident electron beams from 10 to 50 MeV, where secondary interactions induced by the electrons and photons in the target, such as energy loss, absorption, scattering, and (e+, e−)-pair production effects, were taken into account.