When the charged particles collide a solid object, they scatter more or less chaotically because they interact with separate atoms. However, when the target is a crystal and the narrow focused beam of particles collides with this crystal under the certain angle, the individual acts of dispersion result in cooperative effects, i.e. the movement of particles is channeled by nuclear chains or planes. Such channeling allows particles to be penetrated into a crystal much more deeply, than in other cases. The emitted radiation in this case may consists of narrow lines similar to lines of an electron-excited atoms.

Animation simulates the channeling effect in a crystal. Green surface shows the dependence of the potential energy in a crystal and red particles are the charges which moves along the crystallographic planes. We see in animation that the charges can freely move along the crystallographic planes while in any other direction they would scatter strongly at the barriers of potential energy.