Inelastic scattering

In chemistry, nuclear physics, and particle physics, inelastic scattering is a fundamental scattering process in which the kinetic energy of an incident particle is not conserved (in contrast to elastic scattering). In an inelastic scattering process, some of the energy of the incident particle is lost or increased. Although the term is historically related to the concept of inelastic collision in dynamics, the two concepts are quite distinct; inelastic collision in dynamics refers to processes in which the total macroscopic kinetic energy is not conserved. In general, scattering due to inelastic collisions will be inelastic, but, since elastic collisions often transfer kinetic energy between particles, scattering due to elastic collisions can also be inelastic, as in Compton scattering .

When an electron is the incident particle, the probability of inelastic scattering, depending on the energy of the incident electron, is usually smaller than that of elastic scattering. Thus in the case of gas electron diffraction, reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), and transmission electron diffraction, because the energy of the incident electron is high, the contribution of inelastic electron scattering can be ignored. Deep inelastic scattering of electrons from protons provided the first direct evidence for the existence of quarks.

When a photon is the incident particle, there is an inelastic scattering process called Raman scattering. In this scattering process, the incident photon interacts with matter (gas, liquid, and solid) and the frequency of the photon is shifted to red or blue. A red shift can be observed when part of the energy of the photon is transferred to the interacting matter, where it adds to its internal energy in a process called Stokes scattering. The blue shift can be observed when internal energy of the matter is transferred to the photon; this process is called anti-Stokes Raman scattering.

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