Experimental absolute differential cross section for the excitation of the lowest triplet state of [1.1.1]propellane by electron impact

Abstract

Absolute differential cross sections for collisions of low-energy electrons with [1.1.1]propellane were measured. Presented are the energy dependence of the elastic cross section at 90° in the range 0.5–16 eV, energy dependence of the cross section for the excitation of the 3A2″ lowest triple state at 90° up to 6 eV above threshold, and the angular dependence of the inelastic cross section at energies 1.5, 2.6, and 5.0 eV above threshold. The data is compared with the results of a recent ab initio scattering calculation [C. Winstead, Q. Sun, and V. McKoy, J. Chem. Phys. 97, 9483 (1992)]. The calculated cross section is found to be about two times larger than the experiment in absolute magnitude and to reproduce qualitatively correctly the main experimental features both in the energy and the angular dependence.