The interaction of an electron entering the solid with the constituent atoms is due to the electrostatic forces. As a result of this interaction the electron may be scattered, that is the direction of its momentum may be changed with some amount of energy transferred to the specimen. It is convenient to divide scattering processes into two broad categories: elastic and inelastic. Data on both kinds of scattering are included in this archive:

• Elastic scattering is represented by dependences of differential and total cross sections on incident electron energy for elements with atomic numbers from 1 to 103. The cross sections were calculated by Leonid Bakaleinikov and Yuri Polovko on the basis of Mott's representation.
• Inelastic scattering is represented by dependences of inelastic interaction probabilities on incident electron energy and energy loss for solids of several compositions. The probabilities were calculated by Leonid Bakaleinikov and Ekaterina Flegontova according to the dielectric formulation from optical data.

The elastic scattering is an essentially Coulomb interaction with an atomic nucleus screened by the atomic electrons. In a gas or (to some extent) in an amorphous solid, the constituent atoms can be regarded as independent electron scatterers. In a crystalline solid, the interference between the scattered electron waves should, generally speaking, be taken into account. The elastic scattering is then reffered to as diffraction. The necessity for taking into account the diffraction effects is not related solely to the energy region but also to what information one tries to get.

Inelastic scattering occurs as a result of Coulomb interaction between incident electron and the atomic electrons. The inelastic scattering may not only lead to a single-electron excitation but involve many atoms of the solid (plasmon excitation). Therefore, it is convenient to represent the inelastic scattering properties of solids on per-unit-length basis (instead of per-unit-atom basis in the case of elastic scattering).

Please contact Leonid Bakaleinikov for any questions, comments and suggestions concerning the contents and presentation of the archive. If you find the archive helpful and use the presented data in your research, the authors would appreciate acknowledging that in your papers.

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Creation of this archive was partially funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant No. 96-07-89305).

Created: December 22, 1998
Last updated: December 16, 2022