Rayleigh scattering

Rayleigh scattering is the dominant elastic scattering mechanism in the X ray regime.The inelastic forward scattering is what gives rise to the refractive index, which for X rays is only. X rays can be very penetrating. The voltage of the system indicates how penetrating the x rays will be. The higher the voltage of the generator, the more penetrating the radiation. Just like gamma rays, x rays interact with molecules in the body to produce ion pairs.