A Semi-relativistic Distorted Wave Calculation of Electron Impact Excitation of Gold

A semi-relativistic distorted wave method has been developed to calculate the differential cross section (DCS) and Stokes parameters for electron impacting excitation of gold atom at 30 eV. At large angle ( ≥60°) our DCS results are within the experimental error limit. At small angle ( ≤60°) our DCS results deviate a little from the experimental data. In the whole range our DCS data are roughly the same as those of complete relativistic distorted wave (RDW) method. The P₁ and P₂ calculated from our semi-relativistic method both in structure and tendency are similar to those of the complete RDW method. In particularly, -P₃ calculated from two kinds of relativistic methods are almost the same in magnitude and structure. The difference between our results and those of complete RDW method may come from the neglecting direct relativistic of incident electron in our calculation. By comparing the results with those of experiment and complete RDW method it is deduced that the semi-relativistic distorted wave is a convenient and reliable method.