ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a users guide to electron solid interactions. An electron is a charged particle, so it can interact both with the positive charge on the ionic cores of atoms, and with the loosely bound electrons that surround atoms. H. Starke’s experiments showed that electrons were deviated through significant angles when they interacted with atoms in a solid. In a crystalline solid electron diffraction is of major importance and the scattered intensity becomes sharply peaked about particular directions, the Bragg diffracted beams. Inelastic scattering events are those which cause a deflection of the incident electron and a transfer of energy. Coulomb interactions between the fast incident electrons and the atomic electrons may cause the latter to change their quantum state, with an increase in internal energy. The single scattering model outlined is accurate and ideally suited for the simulation of events in materials which have at least some electron transmission.
