A study of the critical minima and spin polarization in the elastic electron scattering by the lead atom

A complex optical potential, in the framework of Dirac partial wave analysis, is employed to study the minima in the differential cross sections (DCSs) and the spin polarization due to the elastic scattering of electron by Pb atom. In addition, integral, momentum-transfer, absorption, viscosity and total cross sections are also reported for the energy region 6 eV ≤ E_i ≤10 keV. This complex optical potential comprises the static, exchange, polarization and absorption components. We obtain, in total, 12 critical minima (CM) positions, where DCS attains its smallest values and 22 points with of the maximum values of spin polarization (MSP). CM and MSP are found to be correlated in terms of E_i and scattering angles where the spin-flip amplitude overrides the magnitude of their direct counterpart. As per as we know, there is neither any experimental nor any theoretical study on CM of e-Pb scattering available in the literature. A detailed comparison shows a good agreement between our predicted results with the available experimental and other theoretical findings.