Bremsstrahlung from 5-keV electrons incident on Al₂O₃, MgO, and SrTiO₃ targets

Bremsstrahlung emitted by 5-keV electrons incident on Al₂O₃, MgO, and SrTiO₃ targets has been compared to results produced using pyPENELOPE (which is based on PENEPMA, the main program of the Monte Carlo code, PENELOPE). The comparisons have been made to test the accuracies of the code’s implementation of the additivity approximation (i.e. the total bremsstrahlung cross section for a molecular target is the sum of the bremsstrahlung cross sections of the constituent atoms). The results simulated using PENEPMA are consistent with the experimental data, except at energies very near the kinematic endpoint of the bremsstrahlung spectra, where the code underestimates the amplitudes.