Alpha particle types: eventually named alpha, beta, and gamma by Rutherford, based on penetration of objects and deflection by a magnetic field. Alpha rays were defined by Rutherford as those having the lowest penetration of ordinary objects. Rutherford's work also included measurements of the ratio of an alpha particle's mass to its charge, which led him to the hypothesis that alpha particles were doubly charged helium ions (later shown to be bare helium nuclei). In 1907, Ernest Rutherford and Thomas Royds finally proved that alpha particles were indeed helium ions. To do this they allowed alpha particles to penetrate a very thin
Alpha particle physics. Rutherford used alpha particles emitted by radium bromide to infer that J. J. Thomson's Plum pudding model of the atom was fundamentally flawed. In Rutherford's gold foil experiment conducted by his students Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, a narrow beam of alpha particles was established, passing through very thin (a few hundred atoms thick) gold foil. The alpha particles were detected by a zinc sulfide screen, which emits a flash of light upon an alpha particle collision. Rutherford hypothesized that, assuming the "plum pudding" model of the atom was correct, the positively charged alpha particles would be only slightly