Rotational excitations of HF and HCl molecules by collision with electrons

Abstract

HCl and HF molecules treated as rigid rotors are examined when colliding with electrons at energies below molecular vibrational thresholds. The overall interaction includes ab initio computed static contributions from ground-state, near Hartree-Fock, wavefunctions and the long-range contributions from the two lowest multipoles and dipole polarisabilities. The close-coupling (CC) equations are solved in the space-fixed (SF) frame of reference and the five lowest-lying rotational states are included in the expansion for each molecular target. The energy dependence of elastic and inelastic cross sections is discussed.