Determination of molybdenum target parameters for transmission X-ray tube: A Geant4 simulation study

Carbon nanotube-based transmission X-ray tubes are widely used in different applications including mammography and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) experiment. Molybdenum (Mo) is one of the suitable target materials for this type of tube. In this paper, we used a well-known simulator, Geant4, to achieve some of the parameters of the Mo target. The optimum thickness for maximum production of usable X-ray from Mo target was obtained when it was exposed to the electron beam with an energy of 50 keV. In addition, according to the results, hemisphere geometry was recommended for the target at least for XRF application. By increasing target thickness, Mo acts as a filter resulting in limited X-ray energy. For estimating the target's temperature generation, the amount of deposited energy was also evaluated.