Rotationally inelastic scattering of NH3 with H2: Molecular-beam experiments and quantum calculations

Abstract

In crossed molecular-beam experiments, three type of cross sections have been measured: Total differential cross sections with well-resolved diffraction oscillations for oD2–NH3 at E=95.9 and 111.3 meV, differential energy-loss spectra for ND3–oD2 at E=118.3 meV which cover the center-of-mass (c.m.) angular range from 85° to 170° and are obtained by time-of-flight (TOF) analysis, and state-to-state integral cross sections for oNH3–H2 and pNH3–H2 at E=75 meV for many final rotational states which are detected by resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization. These data which are mainly sensitive to the anisotropy of the potential energy surface are well reproduced by quantum calculations in the coupled-states approximation. The potential is constructed by combining large basis-set self-consistent-field (SCF) calculations with damped long-range dispersion coefficients. The two free parameters of the damping function are fitted to a restricted set of configuration interaction (CI) calculations.