Joint theoretical and experimental study on elastic electron scattering from bismuth

We report on experimental elastic differential and integral cross sections for electron scattering from bismuth. The energy range of those measurements is 10--100 eV, while the scattered electron angular range in the differential cross section data is ${10}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}--{150}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$. We also supplement our experimental results with theoretical data from our optical potential approach, in this case applying two different sets of scattering potentials to the problem. Good overall qualitative accord is typically observed between our measured and calculated results, particularly when allowance is made for the dimer contribution in the experimental atomic beam.