The high-energy critical minimum in elastic electron scattering by argon

Abstract

The position of high-energy critical minimum in elastic electron-argon scattering was investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Differential cross-sections (DCSs) were measured as a function of both incident electron energy (40-150 eV) and scattering angle (\(40 {-}126^\circ\)), in small steps around the critical minimum. The position of the high-energy critical minimum in elastic electron-argon scattering was experimentally found to be at \(129.4 \pm0.5\) eV and \(119.4^\circ\pm 0.5^\circ\). To cover the energy and angular ranges of the present experiment, relevant relativistic ab initio calculations were carried out, based on the Dirac-Hartree-Fock method with the exchange calculated exactly. Target polarization is described by an ab initio potential taken from relativistic polarized orbital calculations. The calculated position of the high-energy critical minimum is \(118.0\pm0.5\) eV, \(118.9^\circ\pm0.3^\circ\). It was shown that even slight difference of fixed scattering angle close to the critical point could affect significantly the energy dependent DCS. Discussion of behavior of DCS in the vicinity of the critical minimum was performed including convolution analysis in both energy and angle.