THE ELASTIC-SCATTERING OF SPIN-POLARIZED ELECTRONS FROM XENON

Here we present experimental and theoretical results for the elastic s cattering of spin-polarized electrons from xenon and the subsequent de termination of the Sherman function, which is directly related to the measured spin up-down asymmetry, in the energy range between 30 and 16 0 eV. For our measurements, particular attention was given to minimizi ng the deleterious effects of finite angular resolution and background levels on the derived Sherman functions. Our theoretical results were derived from Dirac-Fock scattering calculations where, for energies a bove 60 eV, the effects of including a phenomenological absorption pot ential to account for the loss of flux into the non-elastic channels h ave been investigated. In general, a comparison of the new experimenta l results with previous data shows very good agreement, however, sharp er structure is observed in some cases in the present results. A compa rison of the calculated with experimental results again shows good agr eement but also demonstrates that for energies above 100 eV, absorptio n effects must be taken into account for a detailed description of the STU parameters.