Total (including ionization) cross sections of electron impact on ground state and metastable Ne atoms

Abstract

Abstract Calculations on total (complete) cross sections Q T , including ionization cross sections for the impact of electrons on neon atoms in the ground state as well as the metastable excited states are presented. At impact energy from threshold to about 1000 eV, we construct a complex potential to calculate various cross sections. Our total inelastic cross sections are used to derive total ionization cross sections Q ion , as done in our recent work on other atomic–molecular targets. The present results on total (complete) cross sections Q T show a good accord with experimental data for the ground state neon. For the metastable Ne ∗ our results are in good agreement with the total ionization measurements of Johnston et al. (J. Phys. B 29 (1996) 531) from threshold to peak, but the present and the previous theories tend to lie above these measurements, at higher energies. All the results are interpreted in terms of various properties of both the target atoms.