Electron-impact double ionization of magnesium

Abstract

Electron-impact double-ionization cross sections differential in the angles of the two ejected electrons have been measured at impact energies of 422 and 1052 eV. The energies of the ejected electrons were fixed at 100 eV each. The cross sections are very different at the two incident energies. At 1052 eV the ejected electrons are preferentially found in the forward direction with respect to the incident beam. At 422 eV they are found in the forward and backward directions with approximately equal probability. The 422-eV cross sections are largest when the incident-electron and ejected-electron momentum vectors lie in a common plane. The observations are discussed in the context of several models for double ionization.