DIELECTRIC MATRIX CALCULATION OF THE DIFFERENTIAL CROSS-SECTION FOR PLASMON EXCITATION AND APPLICATION TO ELECTRON-DIFFRACTION

We present a calculation of the differential cross section for plasmon excitation in Si based on a dielectric matrix which takes into accoun t the electronic band structure of the solid. This result is compared with simple free-electron theory. The differential cross sections are then applied to calculate energy unfiltered convergent beam electron-d iffraction patterns for Si for cases where experimental data exist. Th e simple model for multiple scattering due to plasmon excitation used here gives good overall agreement with experiment, the dielectric matr ix calculation more so than that using free-electron theory.