ELECTRON SCATTERING

random collisions of the charge carriers (electrons) with atoms in a crystalline solid (e.g., metal, semiconductor, or insulator) that decreases the mobility of the carriers. The deflection of a beam of electrons by a target also is called electron scattering. The scattering of beams of electrons accelerated to more than 100 megaelectron volts has been used as a probe of the size and charge distribution of atomic nuclei. In the early 1970s, electron scattering at energies of several gigaelectron volts helped to reveal substructurei.e., quarkswithin protons and neutrons. See also electron diffraction.