How is Characteristic radiation produced?

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Characteristic radiation occurs when an atom has an inner-shell vacancy and an electron from a higher shell drops into that vacancy. The energy released by this transition is emitted as a photon with a discrete energy specific to the element. This starts when a high-speed incident electron ionizes the atom by ejecting an inner-shell electron. The vacancy is then filled by an outer-shell electron, and if a photon is emitted, its energy equals the difference between the binding energies of the two shells, giving sharp, element-specific x-ray lines (like K-alpha, K-beta). This is what makes characteristic radiation distinct from bremsstrahlung, which arises from the slowing of a fast electron in the nuclear field and produces a continuous spectrum. The described process of ejecting an inner-shell electron and an outer-shell electron filling the vacancy with photon emission precisely captures the characteristic x-ray production.