Effects of Target Thickness on Bremsstrahlung Produced by 5-keV Electrons

PENELOPE, a Monte Carlo code, was used to study the target-thickness dependence of bremsstrahlung produced by 5-keV electrons incident on Li, Al, Cu, Ag, Sm, and Au targets. Target thicknesses studied ranged from 0.1 nm (where single-interaction conditions apply) to 10000.0 nm (where multiple-interaction conditions apply). The goals of the research were to study how different portions of the bremsstrahlung spectra change during the transition from single-interaction conditions to multiple-interaction conditions and also to see how this transition depends on the atomic number of the target material.