Events in Physics
Prof. Malcolm Cooper
Compton Scattering: The First 100 Years
Synopsis:
This talk will describe the the discovery of the Compton effect, which was a turning point in the "quantum revolution" and relate the controversies associated with that discovery. The disjointed development of the subject as method of studying electron density distributions in the last 50 years will be summarised and the exploitation of the method to study spin-dependent distributions in ferromagnets with synchrotron radiation over the past quarter century will be illustrated with some recent examples.
Finally current major uses of Compton scattering, e.g. in non-destructive inspection and border security will be covered.