Partial Times Delay in Elastic Electron Scattering by Rectangular Potential Well with Arising Discrete Levels

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the presence of discrete energy levels in a rectangular potential well affects the time delay of slow electrons during elastic scattering, revealing a universal behavior across multiple levels.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the emergence of discrete levels in the well fundamentally alters electron interaction, a novel insight into scattering dynamics with potential well parameters.

Findings

Time delay depends on well parameters and discrete levels.

Presence of a discrete level reduces electron entry into the well.

Behavior is consistent across multiple types of energy levels.

Abstract

We have studied the times delay of slow electrons scattered by a spherically symmetric rectangular potential well as functions of the well parameters. We have shown that the electron interaction with the scattering center qualitatively depends on the presence of discrete levels in the well. While electron retention dominates for the potential well with no discrete levels, the appearance of a level leads to the opposite situation where the incident electron hardly enters the scatterer. Such a behavior of the time delay is universal since we found it not only for the first s-level but also for the following arising s-, p-, and d-levels.