Unlike Thompson’s scatter which involves the single electron, Rayleigh scatter involves all of the electrons of the atom in a coherent scattering interaction. Coherent scattering is an interaction that occurs when a very low energy photon interacts with an electron of an atom causing it to vibrate at the same low frequency as the photon. This vibration of the atom causes it to release the excess energy as an exact replica low-energy photon as the incident photon, but traveling in a different direction. This process occurs at the low x-ray energy range outside diagnostic imaging, therefore it has little significance. The two types are Thompson and Rayleigh scattering.

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