Electron collisions with theNO2radical using theR-matrix method

Abstract

The $R$-matrix method is used to calculate the elastic integral, differential, momentum transfer cross sections, and the excitation cross sections from the ground state $X\text{ }{^{2}A}_{1}$ to the five low-lying electronically excited states $A\text{ }{^{2}B}_{1}$, $B\text{ }{^{2}B}_{2}$, $C\text{ }{^{2}A}_{2}$, ${^{4}A}_{2}$, and ${^{4}B}_{2}$ of the ${\text{NO}}_{2}$ radical. Twenty-one target states are included in the close-coupling expansion of the scattering system, where each target state is represented by configuration-interaction wave function. The calculations give two shape resonances of ${^{3}B}_{1}$ and ${^{1}B}_{1}$ symmetries located at 1.18 and 2.33 eV, respectively, with a common configuration $6{a}_{1}\text{ }2{b}_{1}$. We also detect eight core-excited shape resonances and one Feshbach resonance. Partial elastic, total, and electronic excitation cross sections are presented and compared with the limited previous work. The dissociative nature of the ${^{3}B}_{1}$ and ${^{1}B}_{1}$ shape resonances is explored by performing scattering calculations in which one N-O bond is stretched while the other bond and the bonding angle are frozen. These resonances support dissociative attachment yielding NO and ${\text{O}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ in their respective ground states.