Abstract
Triply-differential cross sections for K-shell ionization by fast electron impact are calculated within the first-order Coulomb Born approximation for the case of a coplanar symmetric geometry. Comparison is made with experimental data on 300 keV and 500 keV e-+ Cu, Ag and Au. For the two lighter targets, the binary peak region is reasonably well described by a theory which uses semirelativistic electronic eigenfunctions to the target field, provided spin-flip is included. For the gold target, the Coulomb Born approximation seriously overestimates the data, pointing to the necessity of a fully relativistic description of the electronic states.

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