Abstract
Measurements of the spin asymmetry for elastic scattering of spin-polarized electrons from krypton are presented, for incident energies in the range 20–200 eV. The measured spin asymmetries are generally small, and do not exceed 0.25 in magnitude at any energy or angle. The experimental results are compared with calculated values of the Sherman function, obtained by solution of the Dirac–Fock equations. The calculations have been performed with the inclusion of polarization and dynamic distortion potentials, and with the addition of an absorption potential to model inelastic processes. For incident energies of 50, 60 and 65 eV, the calculated values of the Sherman function are shown to be extremely sensitive to the details of the model, with the addition of the absorption potential producing dramatically different results.