The Molière radius is a characteristic constant of a material giving the scale of the transverse dimension of the fully contained electromagnetic showers initiated by an incident high energy electron or photon. By definition, it is the radius of a cylinder containing on average 90% of the shower's energy deposition. It is related to the radiation length X0 by the following approximate relation: R = 0.0265 X0 (Z + 1.2), where Z is the atomic number. The Molière radius is useful in experimental particle physics in the design of calorimeters: a smaller Molière radius means better shower position resolution, and better shower separation due to a smaller degree shower overlaps.
The Molière radius is named after German physicist Paul Friederich Gaspard Gert Molière (1909–64).