Eur. Phys. J. D (2015) 69: 9
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2014-50688-x

Regular Article

Calculated electron ionization cross sections of the alkali atoms and the hydrogen spin ionization asymmetry^*

¹ Institut für Physik, Universität Greifswald, 17487 Greifswald, Germany
² Department of Applied Physics and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, Brooklyn, 11201 New York, USA

^a kurt.becker@nyu.edu

Received: 18 September 2014
Received in final form: 25 October 2014
Published online: 8 January 2015

Abstract

This paper addresses two aspects of the electron-impact ionization of hydrogen and the alkali atoms Li, Na, K, and Cs. First, we show that the earlier observation that the detailed treatment of the 2 electrons in the final state of the hydrogen ionization process results in a cross section shape that is in excellent agreement with the cross section shape obtained from the semi-empirical Deutsch-Märk (DM) formalism can be extended to the “quasi one-electron” atoms Li, Na, K, and Cs. Second, we discuss specific aspects of the calculated hydrogen ionization spin asymmetry in light of some recent experimental observations.