Electron impact excitation of the 31P state in magnesium

Abstract

Differential cross sections have been measured for the excitation of the 31P state in magnesium by electrons of 10, 20 and 40 eV. The measurements cover a range of scattering angles from 3 to 130'. These cross sections are compared with the previous measurements of Williams and Trajmar and with the results of the several theoretical models for the scattering problem. There is better agreement with a five-state close-coupling calculation of McCarthy et al, at 20 eV than with the two-state calculation of Fabrikant. The authors find however that the five-state theory predicts cross sections at 40 eV and middle angles that are too large by about a factor of three; this feature is qualitatively s..