Absolute differential cross sections for electron excitation of silver at small scattering angles

We present results of our experimental and theoretical investigations of the electron excitation of the ground 4d105s state of silver. Differential cross sections (DCSs) for the excitation of the first combined resonant 4d105p state (two fine-structure levels with total angular momentum J = 1/2 and 3/2 which cannot be distinguished in the present experiment) were measured at electron-impact energies (E0) of 10, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 eV and for a range of scattering angles (θ) from 3° up to 15°. Absolute DCSs were obtained by the normalization of relative differential cross sections to the optical oscillator strengths. The relativistic distorted wave (RDW) method was used to calculate DCSs and generalized oscillator strengths for each level separately and the combined results are compared with the measurements.