Review of absolute doubly differential cross-section experiments and cross-section ratios for electron bremsstrahlung from rare gas atom and thin-film targets

We discuss doubly differential cross-section experiments for electron bremsstrahlung from free gas atom and thin-film targets for electron energies of 100 keV or less. We compare cross-section ratios for different target atoms with two theoretical models: ordinary bremsstrahlung and total bremsstrahlung calculated in the stripping approximation. Ratios of cross sections have been used to improve the comparison between experiment and theory when only relative cross sections are available or when the error in the absolute cross section is large. We also discuss additional background processes that may be more important in gas target experiments.