Total cross section for electron scattering from Ar, Kr, Ne and N 2 in cold electron collisions

Abstract

Total cross sections for electron scattering from Ar, Kr, Xe and N 2 at electron energies ranging below thermal energy to 20 eV with high-energy resolution obtained are presented. A new experimental technique which employs a combination of the penetrating field technique and the threshold photoionization of rare gas atoms using the synchrotron radiation as an electron source in order to produce a high resolution electron beam at very low energy was developed for the measurements. The lowermost energy of the present measurement reaches to the cold electron collisions regime, where the de Broglie wavelength of an electron becomes much lager than the typical size of target.