A particle beam is a stream of charged or neutral particles that are directed down a certain path, often used in various scientific and industrial applications. Particle beams can consist of different types of particles, including electrons, protons, ions, or even whole atoms. The characteristics of a particle beam can vary based on the type of particles being used and the means of acceleration and focusing.
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A particle beam is a directed stream of particles prepared for transport, interaction or detection. A molecular beam can contain neutral chemical atoms or molecules; an accelerator beam can contain charged electrons, protons or ions. Its direction, energy spread, spatial distribution and particle flux describe different aspects of the preparation.
A source, direction-selecting apertures or focusing elements, a transport region and a detector perform separate tasks. For a charged beam, electric fields can change its energy and magnetic fields can bend its trajectory through the Lorentz force. A neutral atomic beam requires interactions appropriate to its neutral constituents. A vacuum reduces unwanted collisions along either transport path, but it does not itself make every particle's speed equal.