A piece of metal wire called anticathode is bombarded with highly accelerated electrons. The piece of metal becomes a source of X radiation. This radiation can be analyzed with a crystal spectrometer. The observed emission spectrum is shown in figure-25.3

Figure – 25.3

In Figure-25.3, the emission spectrum consists of two parts:

1. Continuous spectrum
2. Line spectrum.

It consists of a line spectrum with a background continuum. X - ray fluorescence producing X- radiation having only a line spectrum without a background continuous spectrum.