Multiple Elastic Scattering in Electron Diffraction by Molecules

Abstract

Electron diffraction patterns from gas molecules containing heavy atoms can be satisfactorily interpreted in terms of a pseudokinematical theory, in which rigorous atomic scattering amplitudes are used, but the Born approximation is retained for expressing the (molecular) interference between the various atomic contributions. It is shown that the correction brought by the second approximation of the pseudokinematical theory, involving multiple scattering on different atoms, is a smooth function of scattering angle and is therefore unimportant in the study of the oscillating interference term.