Consider Compton scattering of a photon by a moving electron. Before the
collision the photon has wavelength \(\lambda\) and is moving in the \(+x\)
-direction, and the electron is moving in the
\(-x\) -direction with total energy \(E\) (including its rest energy \(m c^{2} )\)
The photon and electron collide head-on. After the collision, both are moving
in the \(-x\) -direction (that is, the photon has been scattered by
\(180^{\circ}\) . (a) Derive an expression for the wavelength \(\lambda^{\prime}\)
of
the scattered photon. Show that if \(E>m c^{2},\) where \(m\) is the rest mass of
the electron, your result reduces to $$\lambda^{\prime}=\frac{h
c}{E}\left(1+\frac{m^{2} c^{4} \lambda}{4 h c E}\right)$$ (b) A beam of
infrared radiation from a \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) laser \((\lambda=10.6 \mu
\mathrm{m})\) collides head-on with a beam of electrons, each of total energy
\(E=10.0 \mathrm{GeV}\left(1 \mathrm{GeV}=10^{9} \mathrm{eV}\right) .\)
Calculate the wavelength \(\lambda^{\prime}\) of the scattered photons, assuming
a \(180^{\circ}\) scattering angle. (c) What
kind of scattered photons are these (infrared, microwave, ultraviolet, ett..
\(.\) Can you think of an application of this effect?