bremsstrahlung

Meaning

Noun

• the electromagnetic radiation produced by the deceleration of a charged particle, such as an electron, when it is deflected by another charged particle, such as an atomic nucleus

Origin

• Borrowed from German Bremsstrahlung ("braking or deceleration radiation"), which had been coined in German by Arnold Sommerfeld in 1909, and was first used in English by Arthur Edward Ruark and Harold Urey in 1930.