https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2010-00099-2
Cross section of electron-nucleus bremsstrahlung near the short-wavelength limit
Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Universität
Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 10, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Corresponding author: a haug@tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de
Received:
1
March
2010
Published online:
26
April
2010
Using the partial-wave formalism the cross section of bremsstrahlung for a pure Coulomb field is calculated for various atomic numbers of the target nucleus and various incident electron energies. The results are compared to those of previous theories. For intermediate and large atomic numbers the latter cross sections undervalue significantly the present ones. Except for low atomic numbers the cross sections in Born approximation with the Coulomb correction by Elwert yield more accurate results than the cross sections obtained by using the approximate Sommerfeld-Maue wave function. The effect of screening is small for low atomic numbers. At nonrelativistic energies the number of required partial waves is rather large for target nuclei with high atomic numbers, contrary to the expectations. The pertinent results exceed the numerical values including screening by factors of up to five. They verify the assumption that the nonrelativistic cross section of Sommerfeld is fairly accurate even for high atomic numbers.
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2010