Positron scattering from methane

We report on measurements of total cross sections for positron scattering from the fundamental organic molecule methane (CH(4)). The energy range of these measurements was 0.1-50 eV, whereas the energy resolution was similar to 100 meV when our Ni moderator was used and similar to 260 meV when the W moderator was employed. To assist us in interpreting these data, Schwinger multichannel calculations were performed at both static and static plus polarization levels of approximation for elastic positron scattering from 0.001 to 10 eV. These calculations are found to be in quite good qualitative agreement with our measured data, and they clearly educe the crucial role played by the target polarization in the low energy positron-CH(4) scattering dynamics.

Positron scattering from the cyclic ethers oxirane, 1,4-dioxane, and tetrahydropyran

In this paper we report original measurements of total cross sections (TCSs) for positron scattering from the cyclic ethers oxirane (C2H4O), 1,4-dioxane (C4H8O2), and tetrahydropyran (C5H10O). The present experiments focus on the low energy range from similar to 0.2 to 50 eV, with an energy resolution smaller than 300 meV. This study concludes our systematic investigation into TCSs for a class of organic compounds that can be thought of as sub-units or moieties to the nucleotides in living matter, and which as a consequence have become topical for scientists seeking to simulate particle tracks in matter. Note that as TCSs specify the mean free path between collisions in such simulations, they have enjoyed something of a recent renaissance in interest because of that application. For oxirane, we also report original Schwinger multichannel elastic integral cross section (ICS) calculations at the static and static plus polarisation levels, and with and without Born-closure that attempts to account for the permanent dipole moment of C2H4O. Those elastic ICSs are computed for the energy range 0.5-10 eV. To the best of our knowledge, there are no other experimental results or theoretical calculations against which we can compare the present positron TCSs. However, electron TCSs for oxirane (also known as ethylene oxide) and tetrahydropyran do currently exist in the literature and a comparison to them for each species will be presented. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3696378]