General Core of Radiography – Limited Scope Practice Test 2026: Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

Deceleration of fast electrons in the target’s strong electric field near nuclei produces photons primarily through bremsstrahlung, or braking radiation. As an electron is slowed while passing by nuclei, its energy is emitted as an X-ray photon. This mechanism creates a continuous spectrum of photon energies up to the incident electron energy, which is why bremsstrahlung is the dominant source of diagnostic X-ray photons.

Characteristic radiation occurs when a high-energy electron ejects an inner-shell electron, leaving a vacancy that is filled by an electron from a higher shell; the emitted photons have specific energies tied to the target atoms. This adds discrete lines to the spectrum but contributes less overall than bremsstrahlung in typical diagnostic settings. Pair production, requiring photons above 1.022 MeV, is not the primary process in standard X-ray production.