Total integral and ejected-energy differential cross sections for the electron-impact ionization of lithium

Abstract

Time-dependent close-coupling calculations of the electron-impact ionization of lithium are presented and compared to experiment and other recent theoretical calculations. Total integral cross sections are found to be in excellent agreement with the previous converged close-coupling calculations of Bray [J. Phys. B 28, L247 (1995)], but are substantially lower than the only low-energy region experimental results of Zapesochnyi and Aleksakhin [Sov. Phys. JETP 28, 41 (1969)]. Ejected-energy differential cross sections are presented for incident energies of 10 eV, 15 eV, 20 eV, and 25.4 eV. At 25.4 eV, the time-dependent close-coupling results are found to be in only moderately good agreement with the converged close-coupling results of Bray et al. [J. Phys. B 32, 4309 (1999)]. A study is also made of the convergence of the spin asymmetry parameter as a function of orbital angular momentum. The final time-dependent result for the spin asymmetry parameter at an incident energy of 15 eV is found to be in excellent agreement with the converged close-coupling results of Bray [J. Phys. B 28, L247 (1995)], but is slightly lower than the experiment of Baum et al. (1985).