Viewing the Periodic Table of the Elements with X-rays

Abstract: X-rays and x-ray fluorescence are not new subjects to the field of physics. Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays in 1895, and in 1901 he was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in physics for this discovery. Soon after, Charles Glover Barkla discovered that each element has its own characteristic x-ray spectrum. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics for this discovery in 1917. Sir William Henry Bragg and his son, Sir William Lawrence Bragg, were then able to experimentally prove that the discrete electron energy levels of an atom, an idea proposed by Niels Bohr, actually existed. They were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for this in 1915. After this groundwork in x-ray spectroscopy was established, Henry Moseley showed that each element’s characteristic x-ray energy spectrum followed the predictions of the Bohr atomic model.

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