Bremsstrahlung linear polarization at incident electron energies of 0.5-1.5 MeV

At incident electron energies of 0.5-1.5 MeV, bremsstrahlung linear polarization was measured for thin targets of beryllium, aluminum, silver, and gold at emission angles of 10^∘{}-122^∘{} as a function of photon energy. Data were corrected for electron scattering in the target and for multiple scattering of photons in the Compton polarimeter used. For low-atomic-number targets the experimental results are perfectly in agreement with Born-approximation theory and with computations using Sommerfeld-Maue eigen-functions, whereas the high-atomic-number results are described satisfactorily only by partial-wave calculations.