Generalized binary-encounter-Bethe model for electron impact ionization of atoms

Abstract

A generalized binary-encounter-Bethe (GBEB) model is proposed to calculate the partial ionization cross sections of all shells. The present model improves the original version of Kim et al (2000 Phys. Rev.A 62 052710) by incorporating a physically constructed effective charge felt by the ejected electron in the empirical factor, which prevents the selection of specific factors for different shells. A generalized relativistic binary-encounter-Bethe (BEB) formula is also proposed and applied to different inner shells of C, Al, Fe, Ar, Ag, Xe, Sn, Pb, and Bi atoms for impact energies from the thresholds up to 106 keV. The present model improves the partial ionization cross sections in the low-energy region compared to other relativistic BEB models. The GBEB partial and total ionization cross sections of the Xe atom are compared with the original BEB results. The present calculations, combined with the contribution from the direct multiple ionization, show good agreement with the experimental measurements in the intermediate- and high-energy ranges. We conclude that the present GBEB model, without any fitting parameters and ad hoc corrections, improves the BEB prediction of partial and total ionization cross sections for a good variety of atomic targets.