Elastic electron scattering by SnCl4 in the low-energy regime

Abstract

We report integral, differential, and momentum-transfer cross sections for elastic scattering of electrons by tin tetrachloride (SnCl4). The scattering cross sections were calculated with the Schwinger multichannel method implemented with norm-conserving pseudopotentials, in the static-exchange and static-exchange plus polarization levels of approximation, for energies ranging from 0.01 eV to 30 eV. Our calculations show the presence of two resonant structures in the integral cross section located at 3.3 eV and 7.5 eV in the static-exchange approximation, while in the static exchange plus polarization approximation, these structures are centered around 1.2 eV and 5.6 eV. The symmetry decomposition of the integral cross section in both C2v and Td groups along with the analysis of the eigenvalues of the scattering Hamiltonian supports that the first resonance belongs to the T2 symmetry and the second to the E symmetry. Our results also support that the ground state of the negative ion SnCl4− is stable, in agreement with the results of previous studies. The low-energy behavior of the s-wave cross section and the s-wave eigenphase support the presence of a Ramsauer–Townsend minimum at 0.1027 eV. The present integral, differential, and momentum-transfer cross sections in the static exchange approximation are in good agreement with the previous results reported by Joucoski and Bettega [J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 35, 4953 (2002)]. In the static exchange plus polarization approximation, our integral cross section shows a good qualitative agreement with the measured grand-total cross section of Możejko et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 151, 064305 (2019)].