Resonance structure in low-energy electron scattering from OCS

Abstract

Energy-dependent absolute angle-differential cross sections (θ = 135°) for elastic and vibrationally inelastic electron scattering from OCS molecules have been investigated at high resolution (13 meV). The elastic cross section, reported over the range E= 0.06–20 eV, exhibits a deep Ramsauer–Townsend minimum near 0.55 eV and the π*(1.2 eV) and σ*(3.8 eV) resonances known from earlier experimental and theoretical work. The excitation functions for vibrational excitation (VE) of the fundamental CS stretch (1 0 0), the CO stretch (0 0 1) as well as for the fundamental and harmonics of the bending (0 n 0) mode are reported from threshold up to E = 8 eV. VE is mediated—in part in a mode-selective way—by threshold peaks and the higher lying resonances. The selectivity in the threshold region can be rationalized in terms of symmetry arguments where the 2Σ virtual state excites preferentially the σ vibrational states with even quanta of bending vibration over the π vibrational states with odd quanta of bending vibration. The σ*CS resonance is essentially inactive in VE of the CO stretch and the bending mode.