Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/paper-1/section-c/c10/a/solution

For elastic scattering, and , where is a reciprocal lattice vector. In the ideal static crystal, coherent scattering obeys this lattice selection rule; the crystal as a whole can take the mechanical recoil with negligible energy. crystal momentum is defined modulo , not as unconstrained free-particle momentum.

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