A crossed photon–atom beam method for absolute measurement of total photoionization cross sections on isolated metal atoms: Measurements on Ba and Eu atoms

A crossed photon-atom beam apparatus has been constructed for absolute measurement of total photoionization cross sections of isolated and neutral metallic atoms. The main purpose is to establish the technique which can be used as widely as possible for the metallic elements. Using this apparatus, measurements on Ba and Eu atoms have been made at selected energies in their 4d giant resonance regions 110–140 eV and 140–180 eV, respectively. A monochromatized synchrotron radiation was used as a light source. The target-atom density in the interaction section was determined with accuracy of 9% using the accumulation rate of metallic atoms on a quartz crystal sensor and the average velocity of the atoms obtained by a time-of-flight method combined with a pulsed electron gun. The number of photons was determined with use of a double-ion chamber preferably. The entire systematic errors have been estimated to be 20% for Ba and 27% for Eu. The comparison of the measured cross-section values with previous experimental and theoretical results is reasonable, indicating that the crossed photon–atom beam method is fairly promising technique.