A What happens to an electron's energy after Bremsstrahlung radiation?

[adjoint+]

What happens to an electron after it has undergone Bremsstrahlung and all its energy has been converted into an x-ray photon?

 

[mfb]

Do you mean an electron?

Typically it will keep some fraction of its energy in a Bremsstrahlung process. At some point it gets so slow that it can be captured by atoms.

 

[adjoint+]

So, if an electron with 60 KeV interacts with the nucleus of a target material such that all of its energy is converted into an x-ray photon of energy 60 KeV, what happens to that electron now since it has 'no energy'?

 

[adjoint+]

Do you mean an electron?

Typically it will keep some fraction of its energy in a Bremsstrahlung process. At some point it gets so slow that it can be captured by atoms.

Yes, sorry electron, I corrected the question.

 

[mountevans]

So, if an electron with 60 KeV interacts with the nucleus of a target material such that all of its energy is converted into an x-ray photon of energy 60 KeV, what happens to that electron now since it has 'no energy'?

It must be assumed that you're talking about the electron's kinetic energy - the rest mass of an electron is about 511 KeV/c². If it loses those 60 KeV of energy, from its net of 511 + 60 = 561 KeV, it will simply slow down until it is captured by an atom or excited by some other energy input. This is, of course, ignoring all relativistic correction.

In practice, since Bremsstrahlung is not a 100% efficient process, the electron won't really lose all of its energy -- it should slow down to the thermal energy of the surroundings. The electron can't 'disappear.'