Integral cross sections for electron impact excitations of argon and carbon dioxide

Abstract

Electron-impact excitation integral cross sections play an important role in understanding the energy transfer processes in many applied physics. Practical applications require integral cross sections in a wide collision energy range from the excitation threshold to several keV. The recently developed BE-scaling method is able to meet the demands of integral cross sections for dipole-allowed transitions while the prerequisite relies on the accurate generalized oscillator strengths. Fast electron and x-ray scatterings are the conventional experimental techniques to approach the generalized oscillator strengths, and the joint study by both methods can provide credible cross-checks. The validated generalized oscillator strengths can then be used to extrapolate optical oscillator strengths by fitting the data with the Lassettre formula. The fitted curve also enables the integration of generalized oscillator strengths over the whole momentum transfer region to obtain the BE-scaled integral excitation cross sections. Here, experimental measurements by both fast electron and x-ray scattering of argon and carbon dioxide are reviewed. The integral cross sections for some low-lying states are derived from the cross-checked generalized oscillator strengths for the first time. The integral cross sections presented in this paper are openly available at https://doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.01466.