Which Particle to Use?

There are two things to consider when using scattering to find the structure of things: the particle and the energy

Alpha Scattering: Rutherford used alpha particles with energies around 4MeV, any higher and it would be close enough to the nucleus to experience the strong nuclear force.

Electron Scattering: Electrons are accelerated to high energies of around 6GeV. They have enough energy to be scattered within protons and neutrons; discovering quarks. Electrons travelling at this speed have a de Broglie wavelength 1000 times smaller than visible light meaning we can see more detail.

X-ray Scattering: X-ray photons have short wavelengths and can be scattered or completely absorbed by atomic electrons. If the electron is tightly bound or the photon has very little energy the electron remains in the atom and the photon loses no energy. This is known as elastic or coherent scattering. If the photon has enough energy it knocks the electron out of orbit (ionisation) and does lose energy.

Neutron Scattering: Very useful because they are not charged but this limits the energies they can be accelerated to. Neutrons interact weakly with other nuclei and do not interact with electrons at all, because of this they can penetrate further. Their wavelengths are similar to that of atomic spacing, meaning that diffraction will occur.