Electron-impact excitation of neutral boron using the R-matrix with the pseudostates method

Abstract

We have carried out a large R-matrix with pseudostates (RMPS) calculation of the electron-impact excitation of neutral boron. The RMPS method has been employed for the excitation/ionization of many light fusion related species, but primarily for one or two active electrons. The present 640-term close-coupling calculation included three distinct pseudostate expansions. This enabled us to both converge the N-electron structure for three active open-shell electrons and accurately represent the high Rydberg and target continuum states. The derived Maxwell-averaged effective collision strengths will be employed to model the spectral emission from boron, which is of importance to both current (TEXTOR) and future (ITER) magnetic fusion reactors. The full set of effective collision strengths is available at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Controlled Fusion Atomic Data Center Web site.