Integral cross sections for electron impact excitation of the 1Σ+u and 1Πu electronic states in CO2

Abstract

We apply the method of Kim (2007 J. Chem. Phys. 126 064305) in order to derive integral cross sections for the 1Σ+u and 1Πu states of CO2, from our corresponding earlier differential cross section measurements (Green et al 2002 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 35 567). The energy range of this work is 20–200 eV. In addition, the BEf-scaling approach is used to calculate integral cross sections for these same states, from their respective thresholds to 5000 eV. In general, good agreement is found between the experimental integral cross sections and those calculated within the BEf-scaling paradigm, over the entire common energy range. Finally, we employ our calculated integral cross sections to determine the electron energy transfer rates for these states, for a thermal electron energy distribution. Such transfer rates are in principle important for understanding the phenomena in atmospheres where CO2 is a dominant constituent, such as on Mars and Venus.