Signatures of the projectile electron-target core elastic scattering in Ar (e, 2e) reactions at low and intermediate impact energies

The momentum distributions of the recoil ions Ar in Ar (e, 2e) reactions are obtained at incident electron energies from 80 to 220 eV by using the reaction microscope. The contributions of large longitudinal momentum corresponding to the large scattering angle are significant. By comparing the single differential cross sections of the Ar (e, 2e) with those of the electron-argon elastic scattering process, it is concluded that the elastic scattering between the incident electron and the target core plays an important role in the large angle ionization scattering process, and the additional phase shift introduced by the ionized electron results in the disappearance of the sharp minimum that was observed in the elastic scattering. A qualitative explanation of the bigger relative contributions of recoil ions with large longitudinal momenta in Ne (e, 2e) compared to the case in Ar (e, 2e) is given. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.