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Is proton diffraction more difficult to obtain experimentally?

Physics Asked by Jorge Defaia on January 2, 2021

I was studying the phenomena of particle diffraction and saw that any particle can be associated to a de Broglie wavelength, given by $$λ=dfrac{h}{p}$$

Experimentally, we commonly talk about the electron diffraction in a crystal, which was a very important experience to the quantum theory. An electron has relatively little mass, so its momentum is not so big. Also, we can talk about neutron diffraction, remembering that neutrons are not accelerated by an electric potential, but it is possible to do something similar using a magnetic field.

But when I searched for proton diffraction, I found almost nothing compared to the other two. There isn’t an Wikipedia article, nor even images of the circular diffraction patterns that I could easily find for the others. Even considering that a proton is more massive, I thought that it would be possible to do such experiment simply accelerating the beam at lower potentials. Given that protons are about $10^3$ more massive than electrons, I thought that it could be solved just submitting them to voltages in the order of volts, instead of kilo volts, as it is usual for electrons.

So, are there other limitations to proton diffraction experiences and applications ?

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