Dissociative Attachment in CH3Cl and C2H5Cl: Experiment and Theory

Abstract

Dissociative attachment (DA) to chlorine-containing molecules is of special importance in many applications, particularly in excimer lasers, plasma etching and optically controlled diffuse discharge switches. A description of the DA process in low-energy electron-molecule collisions is still a big challenge to the theory. Completely ab initio calculations have been performed for very few species. In fact, only the hydrogen molecule has been studied well enough to claim that all features of the inelastic processes have been fully understood theoretically. It is clear that at the present moment we can achieve some understanding of electron scattering from more complicated molecules only by combining experimental data with an appropriate theoretical analysis.