Construction:- It consist of hard glass bulb with cathode and anode as shown in fig. Cathode is a metal filament kept at negative potential to the filament. Target T consist of copper block in which a piece of tungsten is fitted.
Working: When the cathode is heated by electric current it produce electrons due to thermionic emission. The beam of electrons is then focused on the anode (target). The electrons from cathode are accelerated by applying high voltage between cathode & anode using step up transformer. When these fast moving electrons are suddenly stopped by tungsten anode, they lose their kinetic energy and x rays are produced from the target. Some amount of Kinetic energy is converted to large amount of heat. By controlling the filament current, the thermionic emission of electron hence intensity of X- rays can be controlled.