Electron-impact cross sections for deuterated hydrogen and deuterium molecules

Abstract

The demand for electron-impact cross sections has increased tremendously in recent years. There is, however, a special interest in such cross sections for hydrogen molecules and its isotopomers, HD and D2, because of their presence in tokamak edge plasmas, planetary atmospheres and at different astrophysical sites. This explains the need for having well validated sets of electron-impact cross sections for different processes. This work reviews the electron-scattering cross sections for elastic and inelastic processes at different electron energies for both these molecules. The elastic momentum transfer cross sections and inelastic cross sections for electron-impact rotational, vibrational and electronic excitation, emission, dissociation, ionization and dissociative electron attachment have been evaluated and well validated in this work wherever and whenever possible.