Electron scattering from laser excited states of potassium at 3-100 eV

The superelastic electron scattering technique has been employed to investigate the alignment and orientation parameters' dependence on electron energy for the 4 2 S-4 2 P resonance transition in potassium, with the aim of comparing experiment with theory as the electron energy is increased above different core ionization thresholds. Subsequent measurements of the angular dependence of the alignment and orientation parameters are presented over a wide range of scattering angles at superelastic electron energies of 4 and 80 eV. The differential cross section has also been extracted at an electron energy of 4 eV. The experimental data are compared with the convergent close-coupling calculation.