PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The determination of spin-polarization effects in elastic and inelastic (6P) electron scattering from Cs atoms has provided a challenge, experimentally as well as theoretically, for many years. In a crossed-beam arrangement a polarized electron beam from a strained GaAs crystal is intersected with a polarized Cs atomic beam to measure the angular dependences of the spin-asymmetries A1, A2 and Ann as well as the relative differential cross section at selected energies in the range from 4 to 25 eV. The asymmetries can be related to electron exchange processes (Ann), to relativistic/spin-orbit effects (A2), or to an interference of these two mechanisms (A1). A comparison can be made in this theoretically difficult intermediate energy regime with recent calculations, which use either the relativistic R matrix method, or the convergent close-coupling method.