Time delay in electron scattering depends on both the scattering angle $\theta$ and scattered electron energy E. A study on the angular time delay of e-C₆₀ elastic scattering was carried out in the present work. We employed the annular square well (ASW) potential to simulate the C₆₀ environment. The contribution from different partial waves to the total angular time delay profile was examined in detail. The investigation was performed for both resonant and non-resonant energies, and salient characteristics in the time delay profile for each case were studied.

Plane-wave electrons undergo momentum transfer as they scatter off a target in overlapping spherical waves. The transferred momentum leads to target structural information to be encoded in angle and energy differential scattering. For symmetric, periodic, or structured targets this can engender diffraction in the electron intensity both in real and momentum space. With the example of elastic scattering from a C_{60} molecule we show these simultaneous diffraction signatures. Simulated angle-momentum diffractograms can be imaged in experiments with a two-dimensional detector and an energy-tunable electron gun. The result may inspire the invention of technology to extend scopes of electron diffraction studies, open a track of electron crystallography using the momentum-differential diffraction, and motivate research about controlling the time delay between the pump laser pulse and probe electron pulse by tuning the electron impact speed in ultrafast electron diffraction experiments.

Access to time delay in a projectile-target scattering is a fundamental tool in understanding their interactions by probing the temporal domain. The present study focuses on computing and analyzing the Eisenbud-Wigner-Smith (EWS) time delay in low energy elastic $e-{\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ scattering. The investigation is carried out in the framework of a non-relativistic partial wave analysis (PWA) technique. The projectile-target interaction is described in (i) Density Functional Theory (DFT) and (ii) Annular Square Well (ASW) static model, and their final results are compared in details. The impact of polarization on resonant and non-resonant time delay is also investigated.

Our recent study [Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 033002 (2024)] accessed the angle-energy two-dimensional diffraction in elastic electron scattering from C ₆₀ with implications in ultrafast electron diffraction studies. The objective of the current investigation is to carry out a detailed characterization of the Fourier transformed signals of diffraction fringes in the angular distribution for a range of impact energies. Results shed light on how the electron’s perception of the molecular target evolves as a function of its de Broglie wavelength and tends to be geometrically accurate at faster impacts. For very fast impacts and resulting dominance of high angular momentum partial waves, the target becomes partly hidden within a spherical shell of repulsive centrifugal barrier, from which the electron “self-diffracts”. This effect is favored by the polarization interaction of C ₆₀ . Potentials from a jellium-based density functional theory within the local density approximation and an annular square well model are independently applied to simulate the C ₆₀ environment. Results from the partial wave analysis and Born approximation are independently analyzed by a fast Fourier transformation technique.

A novel scattering formalism, the multi-configuration Dirac–Fock partial wave analysis (MCDF-PWA), is presented in this study. This approach extends the conventional Dirac partial wave analysis by incorporating multiple atomic configurations of the target scatterer. The newly formulated methodology is employed to compute the cross-sections in elastic e-atom scattering. The analysis is performed for a few atomic targets like Mg, Ca, and Ba.