Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on theoretical and experimental studies of differential cross sections. The differential cross section (DCS) is very useful in gaining insight into the details of the collision mechanism. DCS, for instance, reflects more clearly the characteristics of the interaction potential than the total (integrated) cross section (TCS). A long-range interaction generally dominates in small-angle scattering and a short-range one in the large-angle scattering. In a theoretical study of electron–atom collisions, it is customary now to compare DCS to experiment or other theory to test the validity of the theory. DCS is more critically dependent than TCS on the target wavefunction and the approximate method employed in the calculation. Sometimes DCSs obtained in different calculations differ very much, while the corresponding TCSs agree with each other. In addition, DCS is of practical importance in applications, especially when a spatial anisotropy is involved.
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