The scattering of electrons from inert gases. II. Absolute differential elastic cross sections for neon, krypton and xenon atoms

Abstract

For pt.I see ibid., vol.8, no.10, p.1670 (1975). Measurements of the absolute differential cross sections for the elastic scattering of electrons from neon, krypton and xenon for a wide range of electron energies and scattering angles and with high angular resolution are presented. The range of electron energies is 20 to 400 eV, the range of scattering angles from 20 to 150 degrees and the angular resolution of both the incident and scattered electron beams is 1.5 degrees. The experimental method is based on the crossed electron and modulated atom beams techniques. Measured angular distributions have been made absolute by carrying out phase shift analyses over the 19.35 eV (1s2s2)2S resonant state of helium and the 11.10 and 11.27 eV (3s23p54s2), 2P1/2, 2P3/2 resonance doublet in argon coupled with accurate determinations of the beam density ratios of neon, krypton and xenon to helium and argon. The absolute differential cross sections are not consistently in agreement with any previous absolute determinations.