Inner-shell ionization by relativistic electron impact

K-, L andM-shell ionization cross sections have been measured for 23 elements, 12≦Z≦92, after bombardment with relativistic electrons, 15≦E ₀65MeV, by means of high resolution semiconductor detectors and a recently developed gas-scintillation proportional counter. For constant electron bombarding energyE ₀ the ionization cross sections follow a power law dependence,σ∽Z ^?α, and forE ₀=50MeV we deducedα =2.45±0.02 for theK shell andα=3.00 ±0.09 for theL shell. The observedZ dependence exhibits significant systematic deviations from theoretical predictions which exceed the experimental values up to 15 % at lowZ elements for theK shell and on the average about 11% for theL andM shell. The same behaviour of too low experimental values, i.e. an overestimation by the theory, is observed for the energy dependence of the cross sections for all shells. A scaling behaviour describing theZ andE ₀ dependence for allK-, L andM-shell data points is observed which also predicts the experimental values by other groups at lower and higher energies correctly. The comparsion of the measuredLΒ/Lα, andLγ/Lα intensity ratios for highZ elements with the values obtained by other groups in the energy range 0.3≦E₀≦1,000 MeV exhibits an increase with bombarding energy that cannot merely be explained by the energy dependence of the subshellionization cross sections for theL shell. An attempt to explain this effect with the change of the Coster-Kronig transition probability is described.