Experimental thick target bremsstrahlung spectra produced by 5–25 keV electrons for 6 ≤ Z ≤ 82 and comparison with Monte Carlo PENELOPE simulations

Highlights: • We measure thick solid target bremsstrahlung by 5–25 keV electron for 6 ≤ Z ≤ 82. • Experiments are performed with an upgraded experimental setup. • Experimental results are in excellent agreement with PENELOPE simulations. • The results indicate that there are no PB contributions for thick solid targets. -- Abstract: Measurements of bremsstrahlung spectra of thick solid C(Z = 6), Ti(Z = 22), Zr(Z = 40), Nb(Z = 41), W(Z = 74) and Pb(Z = 82) targets by the impact of electrons with energies of 5–25 keV are presented. The experimental data exhibit an excellent agreement with the simulated results by means of the Monte Carlo code PENELOPE based only on ordinary bremsstrahlung. It demonstrates that the bremsstrahlung of thick solid targets in the energy range of interest has not shown any polarization bremsstrahlung contribution and this process can be described accurately by the PENELOPE code.