Polarization of argon K x radiation following electron-impact ionization

The angular and impact-energy dependence of the characteristic K x radiation of argon produced from collisions of electrons with 10.0–24.0 keV energies has been investigated. The radiation is found to show a net linear polarization of up to (17±6)% in the investigated range of impact energy. This anisotropy is believed to arise from the strong polarization of Kα satellite lines of argon produced by the simultaneous decay of a single K- and multiple L-shell vacancy states created in the collisions. Also, the behavior of the net polarization of K radiation as a function of impact energy in the range of 10.0 to 24.0 keV has been studied. Over the range of impact energies, the polarization is found to show a nearly constant value within the experimental uncertainty.