Separation of Particular Energy Bands from the Bremsstrahlung Spectrum of a Pulsed X-ray Source for the Purpose of Dual-Energy X-ray Imaging

This article presents a method for separation of particular energy bands from the Bremsstrahlung spectrum of a pulsed X-ray source for the purpose of dual-energy X-ray imaging. We used pulsed X-ray source with an inductive energy storage device and a semiconductor opening switch. The device has the following parameters: the pulse voltage is 91 kV, the X-ray tube pulse current is up to 140 A, the focal spot diameter of this X-ray tube is about 1.2 mm, the X-ray pulse repetition rate is up to 5 kHz, the current pulse duration is up to 25 ns. The Bremsstrahlung spectrum of this source contains a larger amount of low-energy quanta than that of continuous radiation sources. Changes of the radiation spectrum due to application of a combination of aluminum and copper filters allows obtaining radiation in specified narrow energy bands using mathematical calculation. The purpose of the experiment was to distinguish beryl concealed in glimmerite in dual-energy X-ray images.