Electron-Molecule Interactions in the Gas Phase: Cross Sections and Coefficients

Abstract

The quantity which characterizes an electron scattering processnis the electron scattering cross sectionσ n. The electron scattering crosss ection σ n represents the probability for the occurrence of the particularprocess n in an electron-molecule collision. The cross sections for the various electron-molecule interaction processes n are a function of the electron energy ethe type of the process nand the scattering angle Ө As mentioned in Ch. 1, the electron scattering cross sections are also a function of the internal energy of the target molecule and the density and nature of the medium in which the electron-molecule collision occurs. Many books (e.g., Refs. [1 – 6]) have provided extensive discussions and definitions of the various cross sections for electron collision processes.The discussion below is based on these sources.