X-Ray Hard

X-rays of hard radiation

X-rays were born during the first attempt to use electromagnetic phenomena to produce them. At the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries, the inventor of X-ray tubes, P. Curie and F. A. Landau, theoretically substantiated its production method. Their work was the first to show that using electric and magnetic fields it is possible to concentrate electromagnetic waves into a narrow beam that can penetrate solid materials.

Conducting experiments with tubes of various designs, scientists discovered a previously unknown phenomenon - the possibility of producing rays with a long wavelength. They were called X-ray, but the term “X-ray” began to be used only after the German physicist W. Hempel gave another name to the discovered scientific waves: hard, or penetrating rays. The term “radiation hardness” itself was introduced by W. Laue, who, together with Curie, put forward a hypothesis about the electronic nature of these rays.