Monte Carlo studies of a novel X-ray tube anode design

When energetic electrons are incident on high atomic number absorbers, a substantial fraction is back-scattered. This phenomenon is responsible for several undesirable effects in X-ray tubes, in particular a reduction in the X-ray output. The extent of this shortfall has been estimated by using Mont...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tavora, L. M. N. (author)
Other Authors: Gilboy, W. B. (author), Morton, E. J. (author)
Format: article
Language:eng
Published: 2001
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10316/4512
Country:Portugal
Oai:oai:estudogeral.sib.uc.pt:10316/4512
Description
Summary:When energetic electrons are incident on high atomic number absorbers, a substantial fraction is back-scattered. This phenomenon is responsible for several undesirable effects in X-ray tubes, in particular a reduction in the X-ray output. The extent of this shortfall has been estimated by using Monte Carlo simulation to start electrons at increasing depth inside the anode, the results indicating that an output enhancement of nearly 50% could be achieved in principle if the electrons wasted in back-scatter events could be trapped inside a tungsten anode. To test this idea a further set of simulations were done for a novel anode geometry. Results showed that X-ray tube efficiencies might be substantially enhanced by this approach.