Ejected Electron Distributions

Abstract

Differential cross sections for production of secondary electrons in the ionization of atoms by charged-particle impact are examined in the classical binary-encounter approximation. General scalable expressions are given for both electron and heavy-charged-particle impact, and are compared with experimental and quantum treatments where possible. It is found that this formulation provides simple physical explanations of most features of ejected electron energy and velocity distributions. Proton-impact results are found to be in excellent agreement with experiment, and the electron-impact results converge to the Born results as expected.