Experimental and theoretical total cross sections for single and double ionization of the open-4d-shell ions Xe12+, Xe13+, and Xe14+ by electron impact

Abstract

We present new experimental and theoretical cross sections for electron-impact single ionization of Xe12+ and Xe13+ ions, and double ionization of Xe12+, Xe13+ and Xe14+ ions for collision energies from the respective ionization thresholds up to 3500 eV. The calculations use the fully relativistic subconfiguration-averaged distorted-wave approach and, partly, the more detailed level-to-level distorted wave method. We find that, unlike in previous work, our theoretical cross sections agree with our experimental ones within the experimental uncertainties, except for the near-threshold double-ionization cross sections. We attribute this remaining discrepancy to the neglect of direct-double ionization in the present theoretical treatment.