Electron scattering

Electron scattering is the deflection or redistribution of electrons’ momentum and energy through interactions with a material’s defects, vibrations, impurities, or other particles.

Drude model: A classical model that describes electrical conduction through electrons moving and scattering in a material. It represents scattering as collisions that limit electron motion and conductivity.
Phonon: A quantized collective vibration of atoms in a crystal lattice. Electron–phonon interactions scatter electrons as lattice vibrations exchange energy and momentum.
Electrical resistivity: A material property that measures how strongly it opposes electric current. Momentum-relaxing electron scattering produces electrical resistance in conductors.
Electron diffraction: The formation of interference patterns when electrons scatter coherently from ordered matter. Diffraction is an organized wave-interference result, not simply momentum randomization in transport.
Relaxation time: The characteristic time over which a system approaches equilibrium after a disturbance. Electron transport models use it to summarize how frequently scattering randomizes momentum.
Crystal defect: A departure from the regular atomic arrangement of a crystal. Defects disrupt the periodic potential and scatter electrons even without thermal motion.
Electrical conductivity: A measure of how readily a material carries electric current. Scattering rates help set the conductivity predicted by transport models.
Electron localization: The confinement of electronic wave functions by disorder or other effects. Strong repeated scattering can interfere constructively and suppress long-range transport.
Mean free path: The average distance a particle travels between successive scattering events. It translates electron scattering rates into a characteristic travel distance.
Impurity scattering: Electron scattering caused by foreign atoms or other impurities within a material. It is a specific form of disorder scattering that often limits conductivity.

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