The mean free path of an electron in copper between two inelastic collisions

The mean free path of an electron in copper between two inelastic collisions was evaluated for electron energies in the range 10–1000 eV using the dielectric theory. The loss function which describes the response of the solid was deduced from measurements of the energy losses suffered by an electron beam in a transmission experiment. It was extended to non-zero values of the momentum transfer q by a procedure based on a separation of the two variables, namely the momentum transfer and the energy transfer. The results obtained are compared with experimental observations and with values obtained from other self-energy calculations in the literature.