High energy electron impact spectroscopy measurement on the Compton defect

Abstract

Recent Compton scattering experiments with a 35 keV electron beam on helium, molecular hydrogen, and molecular deuterium, have shown that the energy loss spectra do not reduce to Compton profiles by means of the Binary Encounter theory. The observed Compton peak is shifted to smaller energy losses than those associated with a stationary unbound electron. This shift has been studied for momentum transfer from 1·5 to 12 a.u. for both He, and H₂, and it is suggested that even at large momentum transfers electron correlations could be important.