Complex model optical potential for electron scattering from oxygen

Abstract

We report calculations of the total (elastic plus inelastic) cross-sections for the e-O system over a wide energy range 10–5000 eV. A local complex optical potential is calculated for the system using the atomic wavefunctions at the Hartree-Fock level. The real part of potential is composed of the attractive static, correlation polarisation and exchange potential. The imaginary component of the complex potential is a function of target charge density, incident electron energy and mean excitation energy. The resulting complex potential is treated in variable phase approach to yield complex phase shifts and total cross-sections. The total and elastic cross-sections are compared with the other available results. The agreement is excellent for total cross-sections with other theoretical work at energies greater than 100 eV. We have excellent agreement for elastic cross-sections with the experimental and theoretical results at all the energies. The elastic differential cross-sections are presented at 50 eV and 1000 eV. We fit the absorption cross-section values to Bethe asymptotic formula in high energy range (≥ 5500 eV). Ionisation cross-sections above 1000 eV are also deduced from the theory.