Electron scattering

The electron scattering (in some contexts also electron impact is called) non-research method especially in atomic and nuclear physics . Here, electrons are scattered at the atom's Coulomb potential , and the spins of the electron and nucleus interact with each other. The shape factor of the charge distribution is obtained from the analysis of the scattered electrons , which corresponds to the Fourier transform of the charge distribution. A distinction is made between elastic and inelastic scattering.

The differential cross section is:

${\displaystyle \left({\frac {\partial \sigma }{\partial \Omega }}\right)=\left({\frac {\partial \sigma }{\partial \Omega }}\right)_{\mathrm {Rutherford} }\left(1-\beta ^{2}\sin ^{2}{\frac {\theta }{2}}\right)}$

Due to electron scattering, great progress was made in researching the structure of matter, especially at the beginning of the 20th century. See, for example, Rutherford scattering . The structure of the proton was also investigated using electron scattering.