Electron impact calculations of total ionization cross sections for environmentally sensitive diatomic and triatomic molecules from threshold to 5 keV

Abstract

In this paper we report calculations of the total ionization cross sections, Qion, for environmentally sensitive molecules, namely CO, CO2, CS, OCS, CS2 and S2, upon electron impact for energies from circa threshold to 5000 eV. Spherical complex optical potential (SCOP) formalism is employed to evaluate total inelastic cross sections, Qinel. Total ionization cross sections, Qion, are extracted from the total inelastic cross sections, using a semi-empirical formalism developed by us, called the ‘complex spherical potential-ionization contribution’ (CSP-ic) method. The present results are compared with both theoretical and experimental data available in the literature and overall good agreement is observed for all the reported molecules.