Total cross sections for electron scattering from Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe

Abstract
Total cross sections have been measured for electron scattering on Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe in the impact energy range between 25 and 750 eV. The method used has been introduced by Blaauw et al. (1980) for the same measurement with He and N2 as targets. It is a linearisation of the Ramsauer-type experiment, which enables good angular and energy resolution; the accuracy in the total cross sections obtained is better than 5%. Substantial differences are found with experimental data of other groups, which can often be attributed to shortcomings in their experimental set-up. The best agreement is obtained with the recent data of Kauppila, Stein and co-workers (1980). Above 100 eV our Ne and Ar data can be compared with theoretical calculations, of which the optical model results of Joachain et al. (1979) rapidly converge to the present ones. Good agreement is also found with the semi-empirical total cross sections of de Heer et al. (1979).