Elastic Scattering of Slow Electrons by Cesium Atoms

The elastic scattering cross section for the scattering of slow electrons by cesium atoms has been calculated for incident electron energies ranging from 0.0005 to 0.13 Ry. The model used is an adiabatic one which includes exchange. By means of a partial-wave expansion the problem is reduced to the solution of an integrodifferential equation for each partial wave. The results of the calculation show rough agreement with low-energy plasma resistivity experiments and with collision-time measurements, but do not support the microwave experiments of Chen and Raether. The results of the calculation are quite sensitive to the inclusion of exchange and to the form of the polarization potential; arguments are presented to show that optimum parameters of an adiabatic model have been used in the present calculation.