Angular and energy distribution of electrons produced by 200–500 keV protons in gases

Abstract

The cross beam method was used to measure double differential ionization cross sections for electron production by 200–500 keV protons incident on a molecular beam. The ejected secondary electrons were detected by an electron multiplier and an electrostatic 90 °-spectrometer which was movable in the scattering chamber from 18 °–155 ° with respect to the incident proton direction. After the elimination of disturbing electric and magnetic fields, electrons were measured at energies down to 1 eV. The absorption of the very slow electrons along their path through the spectrometer could be minimized by using a relatively low gas pressure in the scattering chamber of a few 10−5 Torr. The efficiency of the electron detector was determined with an electron source whose emission rate per solid angle was known. Absolute cross sections and their angular dependence were obtained by measuring the slow electrons—ejected with a relatively high rate—without the molecular beam; these data being used to normalize the electron spectra acquired with the molecular beam. Ionization cross sections with 300 keV protons incident on helium are discussed and except for the very slow electrons, a good agreement is found with results of Ruddet al.