The effective differential cross section for elastic scattering of electrons by atoms and its use for Monte Carlo simulation of electron passage through matter

Abstract

The effective differential cross section (DCS) for elastic scattering of electrons by atoms is proposed that reproduces known energy dependences for the first and second transport cross sections but provides a total elastic cross section that is significantly small compared with the known energy dependences. The number of elastic collisions of electrons in matter when using the effective DCS in Monte Carlo simulations is significantly lower than that when using the real DCS. The results of our Monte Carlo simulation of electron propagation in aluminium using the proposed DCS are in good agreement with experimental data.