Total cross sections for high-energy electron scattering by H/sub 2/ (/sup 1/. sigma. /sub g//sup +/), N/sub 2/ (/sup 1/. sigma. /sub g//sup +/), and O/sub 2/ (/sup 3/. sigma. /sub g//sup -/)

Journal Article · Thu Jan 15 00:00:00 EST 1987 · Phys. Rev. A; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.35.591· OSTI ID:5894446

Liu, J W

Total inelastic cross sections are calculated for collisions of ground-state H/sub 2/, N/sub 2/, and O/sub 2/ with fast electrons according to the revised Bethe theory given by Inokuti et al. The asymptotic forms of the total elastic-scattering cross sections in the first Born approximation due to Inokuti and McDowell and including an electron exchange correction are also evaluated for these molecules. For H/sub 2/, various accurate configuration-interaction wave functions are used to compute the total inelastic and the integral elastic-scattering cross sections. Good agreement between theory and experiment is found for the total cross sections (inelastic and elastic) for high incident energies as well as incident energies near 1 keV. The cross sections are also given for N/sub 2/ and O/sub 2/. Since there are no experimental reports for the integral elastic cross section for N/sub 2/ or O/sub 2/ at very high incident energies, the comparison is made only for the experimental data at incident energies near 1 keV. It is found that the theoretical results overestimate the experimental data by about 30% for N/sub 2/. However, the Bethe total inelastic cross sections are in good agreement with experiments. Since the Born-Bethe approximation may not be valid at lower incident energies, more accurate experimental data at very high incident energies are required for valid comparison with the theoretical results reported here.

• Research Organization: Division of Physics, National Research Council of Canada, Montreal Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1AX6
• OSTI ID: 5894446
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev. A; (United States), Vol. 35:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ELECTRON-MOLECULE COLLISIONS
INELASTIC SCATTERING
TOTAL CROSS SECTIONS
HYDROGEN
NITROGEN
OXYGEN
CONFIGURATION INTERACTION
WAVE FUNCTIONS
COLLISIONS
CROSS SECTIONS
ELECTRON COLLISIONS
ELEMENTS
FUNCTIONS
MOLECULE COLLISIONS
NONMETALS
SCATTERING
640304* - Atomic
Molecular & Chemical Physics- Collision Phenomena