Absolute total cross sections for electron-mercury scattering

The total cross section for e--Hg scattering has been measured in the energy range between 0.1 and 500 eV. Absolute data taken at a few energies by means of a static target were used to normalize the relative cross sections, which were measured in the whole energy range by scattering from an atomic beam. This technique was used to help meet the high-angular-resolution requirements. The cross sections obtained are considerably larger than those obtained in most of the other measurements performed around 1930. Satisfactory agreement is found, however, with semiempirical cross sections (mainly based on recent measurements) and with a recent theoretical calculation. The most pronounced structure is a cross section maximum at 0.4 eV, which probably can be ascribed to a (6s26p/sub 1/2/) 2P/sub 1/2/ shape resonance