Distorted-wave calculation of elastic and inelastic scattering of electrons from cadmium

The first-order distorted-wave approximation (DWB1) has been shown to be very successful for electron-atom scattering problems. For excitation of light atoms there have been several DWB1 studies and for the heavier atoms most of the work has concentrated on the inert gases and mercury. The majority of these studies have been for excitation processes in which one unit of angular momentum is transferred to the atom. Very recently however, experimental results for elastic scattering and excitation of several different states of cadmium by electron impact have been reported. In the paper, first-order distorted-wave results for elastic scattering and excitation of the 5 1 P 1 , 5 3 P 1 , 5 3 P 2 , 5 1 D 2 , 6 1 S 0 and 6 1 P 1 states of cadmium are compared with these experimental measurements to investigate the validity of the DWB1 for a range of electron energies and different final states.