Superelastic electron scattering at sodium atoms in the Born distorted-wave approximation

Experimental and theoretical studies have been made on superelastic electron scattering at atoms excited by laser pumping [1,2]. The most detailed studies have been made on electron scattering by sodium atoms excited to the 3P state by a laser: $e+Na^*(3P)\rightarrow e^{\prime}+Na(3S)$ [3]. Here we examine the applicability of the Born distorted-wave approximation BDWA [4,5] in describing this. The channel strong-coupling approximation [6] and the polarized-orbital method [7] have been used previously for a similar purpose. On the basis of the available experimental data and the general constraints imposed on BDWA, we are interested only in small scattering angles. Here we giye calculations for an electron beam energy E = 20 eV.