What would happen if a stream of electrons hits a conductor?

[James12345678]

I don't know much about particle physics, but out of curiosity I was wondering what would happen if a stream of electrons hit a conductor, say copper plating, an would it be detectible?

 

[mfb]

Assuming low-energetic electrons: the conductor gets charged a bit. This can be detectable, it depends on the size of the conductor and the amount of electrons.

If you want to detect small amounts of electrons, CCDs could be interesting, with more sensitive devices available if necessary.

 

[anorlunda]

Think of a lightning rod on the roof when it is struck by lightning. What do you expect to happen?

 

[Vagn]

I don't know much about particle physics, but out of curiosity I was wondering what would happen if a stream of electrons hit a conductor, say copper plating, an would it be detectible?

As mfb hinted at, it depends what energy your electrons have, for high energy electrons you will get X-ray emission from the sample as in a conventional X-ray tube.

 

[Vanadium 50]

You might want to look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cup