Department of Physics and Astronomy: Publications and Other Research
Date of this Version
1992
Abstract
We report an attempt to make an optical observation of Matt scattering, involving the first studies of inelastic collisions between polarized electrons and a heavy noble gas. Polarization fractions of light emitted by the 5p56p[5/7],(3D3) state of Xe following impact excitation in an axial collision geometry were measured as a funclion of the incident electron energy, and compared with distorted-wave Bom calculations. The theoretical and experimental results agree qualitatively in the energy range where cascade contributions to the photon signal are small. We failed to measure non-zero values of the linear polarization fraction η1. which would have constituted unambiguous evidence for Matt scattering and/or the importance of higher-order excitation processes in this system.
Comments
Published in J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 25 (1992) 1089-1096.