Study of electron impact elastic scattering from Kr@C60 and Xe@C60 using a fully relativistic approach

Abstract

Abstract In the present work, a detailed study has been reported on electron impact elastic scattering from krypton (Kr) and xenon (Xe) atoms when confined in two different types of C60 potentials viz (a) hard annular square well (ASW) and (b) diffused Gaussian annular square well (GASW). The Dirac equations are solved using these potentials for encaged Kr and Xe in C60. First, bound state Dirac–Fock wave functions of these encaged Kr and Xe atoms are found by utilizing modified general relativistic atomic structure package and thereafter, the charge densities and static potentials of the endohedral Kr@C60 and Xe@C60 are obtained. Further, using these, the Dirac equations are solved by the relativistic partial wave phase shift analysis method and the scattering amplitudes in terms of phase shifts are obtained. Thereafter, the electron elastic differential and integrated cross sections of Kr@C60 and Xe@C60 along with the C60 are calculated in the range of 0.1–15 eV incident electron energies. Presently, no experimental and theoretical results are available to compare our electron scattering cross section results from Kr@C60 and Xe@C60; thus, we have shown the cross section results obtained from ASW and GASW potential and compared them.