Fully differential cross sections for electron-impact ionization of sodium

Abstract

Unitarity of the close-coupling formalism ensures that the total ionization cross section converges much faster than its individual l-components (Bray 1994 Phys. Rev. Lett. 73 1088). However, convergence in the latter is required when obtaining differential cross sections. This can be computationally difficult whenever the ionization threshold is relatively small, as is the case for sodium. Nevertheless, we present convergent close-coupling calculations of fully differential cross sections for electron-impact ionization of sodium and find very good agreement with the available experiment from near threshold through to high energies.