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See Figure 28-11. X-rays are produced when a beam of electrons strikes a target. An incoming electron gives up all or part of its kinetic energy in the collision, and x-rays are the result. The maximum amount of KE a single electron can lose is its initial kinetic energy.
According to the quantum/photon theory of light, each electron interacts with only one atom. The maximum electron KE corresponds to the energy of a single short-wavelength (high-energy) photon. Increasing the number of incoming electrons will result in more photons, but no photon can have more energy than the maximum KE of an electron. In other words, photon theory predicts that there is a “cutoff ” wavelength in the x-ray spectrum. This is what is observed experimentally (see Figure 28-11).
According to the wave theory of light, increasing the number of incoming electrons results in a more energetic light wave, i.e., light of arbitrarily short wavelength, with no cutoff. However, this is not observed experimentally(see Figure 28-11).
