The elastic scattering of spin-polarized electrons from xenon

Here we present experimental and theoretical results for the elastic scattering of spin-polarized electrons from xenon and the subsequent determination of the Sherman function, which is directly related to the measured spin up-down asymmetry, in the energy range between 30 and 160 eV. For our measurements, particular attention was given to minimizing 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 above 60 eV, the effects of including a phenomenological absorption potential to account for the loss of flux into the non-elastic channels have been investigated. In general, a comparison of the new experimental results with previous data shows very good agreement, however, sharper structure is observed in some cases in the present results. A comparison of the calculated with experimental results again shows good agreement but also demonstrates that for energies above 100 eV, absorption effects must be taken into account for a detailed description of the STU parameters.