Direct measurement and Monte Carlo simulation of a bremsstrahlung source created by 10 MeV electrons

A direct measurement of a tantalum/graphite bremsstrahlung source, observed under three different angles, was realised with a germanium detector. This experiment was conducted using the 15 MeV linear electron accelerator of the University of Ghent and a full energy spectrum was obtained. This kind of data, which is fairly important in many fields such as dosimetry, medicine, etc., has been rarely analysed by means of a direct measurement. The results are compared with a Monte Carlo simulation to verify their exactness.