Near-K-edge photoabsorption measurements in xenon

Abstract

Measurements of the absolute photoabsorption cross section near the K edge of Xe are presented. A region of increased slope extending from threshold to 600 eV above it is detected. Similar regions were found in Ar and Kr but of much smaller range. Theoretical cross sections using the hydrogenic approximation yield poor agreement with the data. Recent relativistic calculations including full relaxation and overlap correction are in excellent agreement with our measurements. The data yields an estimate of 11% for the contribution of multielectronic excitations to the cross section, somewhat lower than, but in reasonable agreement with, theory.