Low-energy electron scattering from molecular hydrogen: Excitation of the X1Σg+ to b3Σu+ transition

Abstract

We present time-of-flight differential cross-section measurements and convergent close-coupling calculations of differential cross sections for the electron-impact excitation of the $X\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{1}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}_{g}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}b\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}_{u}^{+}$ transition in molecular hydrogen. A part of this work was recently published [M. Zawadzki et al., Phys. Rev. A 97, 050702(R) (2018)]. In this work, agreement between theory and experiment is excellent overall, and marks a transition in electron-molecule scattering where differential scattering of excitation is found to be in such precise agreement. We also present total electron-impact excitation differential cross sections for ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ for which agreement between theory and experiment is found to be excellent.