Electron impact cross-sections of tetraethyl silicate

Abstract

Understanding the interactions of electrons with molecules in plasma is of vital importance from both academic and technological points of view. Reliable electron collision data is required to model the electron and ion components of low-temperature and nonequilibrium plasmas. Various electron impact cross sections such as the differential, integral, momentum transfer, partial and total ionizations are reported for tetraethyl silicate (TEOS), a plasma-relevant molecule in the energy range between the ionization threshold and 5 keV. The elastic (differential, integral and momentum transfer) cross sections are obtained by invoking the molecular approach and local potential approximation within the single center expansion formalism. The dissociative ionization cross sections are reported within the binary encounter Bethe (BEB) model formalism. The elastic and ionization cross sections are summed incoherently to estimate total cross sections. A good agreement is observed between the present results and others that are available. This work validates the efficacy of the modified BEB model in computing the partial ionization cross sections.