Past exam of the condensed matter physics course of the University of Oxford / 2012 / 1 / a

The incident X-ray drives the electrons of an atom. Away from an absorption edge, and when the photon energy greatly exceeds the relevant electronic binding energies but is small compared with $m_e{c}^2$, each electron has approximately the same Thomson scattering amplitude. The much heavier nucleus makes a negligible contribution because its acceleration is much smaller.

For elastic scattering, the amplitudes from different bound electrons add coherently. In units of the single-electron amplitude, the atomic scattering factor is the Fourier transform of the bound-electron number density:Consequently, when the electron cloud is not well resolved by the scattering vector, its internal phase differences are small andThis is an approximation to the coherent scattering amplitude, not an assertion that independently scattered intensities add as $N_e$. At larger momentum transfer, destructive interference within the cloud reduces $f$; near absorption edges, the atomic scattering factor acquires dispersive corrections. Inelastic scattering is a separate contribution. In an ionic crystal, use the ion's bound-electron count rather than automatically using the neutral atom's atomic number.