Elastic electron scattering from water vapor and ice at high momentum transfer

We compare the area, peak separation, and width of the H and O elastic peak for light and heavy water, as observed in spectra of keV electrons scattered over large angles. Peak separation is well reproduced by the theory, but the O:H area ratio is somewhat larger than expected and is equal to the O:D area ratio. Thus no anomalous scattering from H was observed. Only minor differences are observed for scattering from a gaseous or a solid target. The extracted mean kinetic energy of H and D agreed within 5% with the calculated ones for ice. For the more difficult vapor measurements agreement was on a 12% level. A preliminary attempt to extract the O kinetic energy in ice agreed within 10% with the calculated values. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4775810]