Use of Bremsstrahlung in the Measurement of the Efficiency of Solid State Detectors below 5 keV

Atomic-field bremsstrahlung produced by the bombardment of atoms by an electron beam of 5-10 keV energy provides a continuous x-ray source which is suitable for the measurement of the relative efficiency of solid state detectors in the energy region below 5 keV. The relative efficiency as a function of photon energy can be obtained by normalizing the observed spectrum to the theoretical bremsstrahlung cross section. In this paper we will present an example of this technique using a thin film target and a gas beam target to illustrate some of the problems and to demonstrate the potential of this technique.