The role played by electronic correlation of target on the vibrational excitation cross sections of H2 by electron impact

Abstract

We report a systematic study on the role played by electronic correlation of target on vibrational excitation processes of molecules by electron impact. More specifically, cross sections for vibrationally elastic and inelastic electron–H2 collisions are reported in the 1.5–40eV range. In our study, the electron–molecule interaction potential is derived using both the near-Hartree–Fock and the configuration interaction target wavefunctions. The body-frame vibrational close-coupling equations are solved using the method of continued fractions (MCF). Our study has shown that the MCF is a very efficient method for solving such scattering equations. In addition, the calculated results have shown that the electronic correlation effects of target significantly influence the calculated vibrational excitation cross sections at low incident energies and for the excitations leading to high-lying vibrational levels. Nevertheless, these effects are not relevant at higher incident energies.