PHYSICS INVESTIGATORY PROJECT · CBSE CLASS XII

X-Rays
Production, spectra, diffraction and applications of the most penetrating form
of visible-adjacent electromagnetic radiation.

Student Name: ________________________________

Class & Section: ________________________________

Roll Number: ________________________________

School: ________________________________

Subject: Physics — X-Rays

Session: 2026–27

X-Rays — Physics Investigatory Project Page 1

 Contents
01 Introduction — Discovery and Nature of X-Rays

02 Production of X-Rays — The Coolidge Tube

03 Continuous X-Ray Spectrum

04 Characteristic X-Ray Spectrum and Moseley's Law

05 Properties of X-Rays

06 X-Ray Diffraction and Bragg's Law

07 Absorption and Attenuation of X-Rays

08 Applications of X-Rays

09 Biological Effects and Safety Precautions

10 Formula Sheet, Conclusion and References

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 01 Introduction — Discovery and Nature of X-Rays
In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen was experimenting with a cathode ray tube wrapped in black card when
he noticed a nearby fluorescent screen glowing even though no visible light could have reached it.
He had discovered a new, highly penetrating form of radiation, which he called X-rays — “X” for
unknown. He was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for the finding.

X-rays are electromagnetic waves, exactly like visible light or radio waves, but with far higher
frequency and energy. They occupy the electromagnetic spectrum between ultraviolet light and
gamma rays, with wavelengths roughly between 0.01 nm and 10 nm — about a thousand times
shorter than visible light — and correspondingly higher photon energies, typically in the range of a
few hundred eV to about 100 keV.

Because their wavelength is comparable to the spacing between atoms in a crystal, X-rays interact
with matter in ways visible light cannot — they penetrate soft tissue, scatter off electron clouds,
and diffract from crystal lattices, making them indispensable in medicine, industry and crystal
structure analysis.

Where X-Rays Sit in the EM Spectrum

● Wavelength: approximately 0.01 nm to 10 nm
16 20
● Frequency: approximately 3 × 10 Hz to 3 × 10 Hz
● Photon energy: approximately 100 eV to 100 keV
● Neighbours in the spectrum: ultraviolet radiation on the low-energy side, gamma rays on the
high-energy side (the boundary is defined by origin — nuclear vs. atomic — more than by
wavelength alone).

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 02 Production of X-Rays — The Coolidge Tube
X-rays are produced whenever fast-moving electrons are suddenly decelerated on striking a
target. The modern, standard laboratory source is the Coolidge tube, developed by William
Coolidge in 1913.

Construction
A Coolidge tube is a highly evacuated glass (or ceramic) tube containing:

● A filament (cathode), heated by a low-voltage supply, which emits electrons by thermionic

emission.

● A concave focusing cup around the filament that converges the electron beam onto a small spot.
● A metal target (anode), typically tungsten or molybdenum, set at an angle and backed by a
copper block for heat dissipation.

● A very high accelerating potential difference (typically 20–150 kV) applied between cathode and
anode.

Working
The filament is heated until it emits electrons, which are then accelerated across the large
potential difference V toward the target. On striking the target, the electrons decelerate abruptly
within a very thin surface layer, and most of their kinetic energy converts to heat — only about
1–3% is converted into X-ray photons. Because so much heat is generated, targets are often
rotated (a rotating anode) to spread the heat load and prevent melting.

The intensity of the X-ray beam is controlled by the filament current (which sets the number of
electrons available), while the penetrating power (“hardness”) of the X-rays is controlled by the
accelerating voltage V (which sets the maximum energy an electron — and hence a photon — can
acquire).

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 03 Continuous X-Ray Spectrum
When high-speed electrons are suddenly decelerated in the target's electric field, they radiate
energy as X-ray photons of continuously varying wavelength — this braking radiation is called
Bremsstrahlung (German for “braking radiation”).

An electron may lose all of its kinetic energy in a single collision, or only part of it over several
collisions. The photon emitted in a single, complete-energy-loss collision carries the maximum
possible photon energy, and therefore the shortest possible wavelength — giving the spectrum a
sharp minimum wavelength cut-off, λmin, below which no X-rays are produced no matter how
the tube is operated.

Cut-off (Duane–Hunt) Wavelength

Equating the maximum photon energy to the kinetic energy gained by an electron accelerated
through potential difference V:

eV = hc / λmin ⇒ λmin = hc / eV
Here e is the electronic charge, h is Planck's constant, c is the speed of light, and V is the tube voltage. λ■■■
depends only on V — it is the same for every target material.

The continuous spectrum's overall shape and intensity, however, do depend on the target material
(higher atomic number Z gives more intense Bremsstrahlung) and on the tube current, but λmin
itself shifts only with the accelerating voltage.

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 04 Characteristic X-Ray Spectrum and Moseley's
Law
Superimposed on the smooth continuous spectrum are sharp, intense spikes at wavelengths that
depend only on the target element — the characteristic X-ray spectrum.

If a bombarding electron has enough energy, it can knock an electron out of an inner shell (say the
K-shell) of a target atom. An electron from a higher shell (L, M, …) then falls into the vacancy,
emitting a photon whose energy equals the difference between the two shell energies. A transition
from the L-shell to the K-shell produces the Kα line; from the M-shell to the K-shell, the Kβ line,
and so on. Because inner-shell energies are characteristic of each element, these spectral lines
act as a fingerprint of the target material.

Moseley's Law
Henry Moseley (1913) found that the frequency of a given characteristic line varies smoothly with
the atomic number Z of the target element:

√ν = a (Z − b)
a and b are constants for a given spectral series (b is a screening constant, roughly 1 for the Kα line). A plot of √ν
against Z gives a straight line — Moseley's law.

This relationship was historically decisive: it gave the first reliable, direct experimental method for
determining the atomic number of an element (rather than atomic mass), correctly reordering a
few elements in the periodic table and confirming the shell model of the atom.

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 05 Properties of X-Rays

● Travel in straight lines at the speed of light, and are unaffected by electric or magnetic fields
(confirming they are uncharged electromagnetic waves, not particles).

● Possess very high penetrating power through materials opaque to visible light, especially
low-density or low-atomic-number substances such as soft tissue, wood and paper; they are
absorbed more strongly by dense, high-Z materials like bone and lead.

● Cause fluorescence in certain materials (e.g. barium platinocyanide, zinc sulphide) — the basis
of older fluoroscopic screens.

● Ionize gases they pass through, and affect a photographic plate much like visible light — the
basis of X-ray photography.

● Exhibit diffraction when passed through crystals, since their wavelength is comparable to
interatomic spacing — proving conclusively that X-rays are waves.

● Produce photoelectric emission when incident on certain metal surfaces.

● Have significant biological effects — they can damage or kill living cells, which is exploited in
radiotherapy but also demands careful shielding and dosage control.

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 06 X-Ray Diffraction and Bragg's Law
Because the wavelength of X-rays is of the same order as the spacing between atomic planes in a
crystal (a few tenths of a nanometre), a crystal acts as a natural three-dimensional diffraction
grating for X-rays. This was demonstrated by Max von Laue in 1912 and developed into a precise,
usable law by William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg shortly after.

Consider a set of parallel atomic planes in a crystal, separated by distance d. X-rays reflecting off
successive planes will interfere constructively only if the extra path travelled by the wave reflecting
from the deeper plane is a whole number of wavelengths.

Bragg's Law
2 d sinθ = nλ (n = 1, 2, 3, …)
d = spacing between crystal planes, θ = glancing angle between the incident beam and the crystal plane (not the
normal), λ = X-ray wavelength, n = order of diffraction.

By measuring the angles at which strong reflected beams appear for a known wavelength, the
interplanar spacing d — and hence the entire crystal structure — can be worked out. This
technique, X-ray crystallography, was used to determine the structures of table salt, diamond,
and, famously, DNA.

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 07 Absorption and Attenuation of X-Rays
As an X-ray beam passes through matter, its intensity steadily decreases due to absorption and
scattering — a process called attenuation. For a beam of initial intensity I0 passing through a
thickness x of absorber, the transmitted intensity follows an exponential law:

I = I0 e−µx
µ is the linear absorption (attenuation) coefficient of the material, which depends on the material's density and
atomic number, and on the X-ray photon energy.

Materials with a higher atomic number and density (lead, bone) have a much larger µ and absorb
X-rays strongly, while low-Z materials (soft tissue, air) are comparatively transparent. This
differential absorption between bone and soft tissue is precisely what makes an X-ray radiograph
possible: bones cast a much darker shadow on the film or detector than surrounding tissue.

The thickness of a given material required to reduce the beam intensity to half its initial value is
called the half-value thickness, a practical measure used in designing radiation shielding.

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 08 Applications of X-Rays

Medicine
● Diagnostic radiography — imaging bones, chests and teeth by exploiting differential absorption
between tissue and bone.

● Computed Tomography (CT) — combining many angled X-ray projections to reconstruct

detailed cross-sectional images of the body.

● Radiotherapy — carefully targeted, high-energy X-rays are used to destroy cancerous cells.

Industry and Security

● Detecting flaws, cracks and weld defects inside metal castings and structural components
(industrial radiography).

● Airport and postal security scanners, which use differential absorption to reveal the contents of
luggage and packages without opening them.

● Thickness gauging and quality control in manufacturing (e.g. sheet metal, plastics).

Science
● X-ray crystallography — determining the atomic and molecular structure of crystals, minerals
and biological macromolecules (including the double-helix structure of DNA).

● X-ray astronomy — detecting X-rays from extremely hot cosmic sources such as neutron stars,
black hole accretion discs and supernova remnants, using satellite-borne telescopes (since
Earth's atmosphere absorbs X-rays before they reach the ground).

● Elemental analysis of materials via characteristic X-ray emission (X-ray fluorescence

spectroscopy).

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 09 Biological Effects and Safety Precautions
X-rays are a form of ionizing radiation: their photons carry enough energy to knock electrons out
of atoms and molecules in living tissue, which can damage DNA and cellular structures.
Short-term, high-dose exposure can cause radiation burns and radiation sickness; long-term,
low-dose exposure is associated with an increased risk of cancer. This same cell-damaging
property is what makes controlled X-ray doses useful in destroying tumours during radiotherapy.

Standard Safety Precautions

● Keep exposure time to a minimum — dose accumulates with duration of exposure.
● Maintain maximum practical distance from the source — intensity falls off with the square of
distance.

● Use adequate shielding — lead aprons, lead-lined walls and doors absorb stray radiation.
● Operators wear dosimeter badges to monitor cumulative personal radiation exposure.
● Diagnostic doses are kept as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA principle) while still
producing a usable image.

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 10 Formula Sheet, Conclusion and References

Concept Relation

Cut-off wavelength (continuous spectrum) λ_min = hc / eV

Moseley's Law √ν = a (Z − b)

Bragg's Law (X-ray diffraction) 2d sinθ = nλ

Attenuation of intensity I = I0 e^(−µx)

Conclusion
X-rays sit at a unique crossroads of physics: their production is explained by classical
electromagnetism (Bremsstrahlung) and by quantum transitions between atomic shells
(characteristic spectra); their behaviour on striking a crystal is explained by wave interference
(Bragg's Law); and their interaction with tissue is described by the same photon-absorption
physics used across nuclear and medical physics. From a single accidental glow on a fluorescent
screen in 1895, X-rays have grown into one of the most widely used tools in medicine, industry
and fundamental science.

References
● NCERT Physics Textbook for Class XII — relevant sections on Dual Nature of Radiation and
Atoms

● H. C. Verma, Concepts of Physics, Vol. II

● D. C. Pandey, Understanding Physics: Optics and Modern Physics
● NCERT Exemplar Problems — Physics, Class XII

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