Theoretical study of electron-induced vibrational excitation of NO2

Abstract

In this study, we compute cross sections for vibrational excitation of NO2 by electron impact. Calculations are performed using a theoretical approach based on a combination of the normal mode approximation for vibrational states of the target molecule, fixed-nuclei electron-NO2 scattering matrices and the vibrational frame transformation employed to evaluate the scattering matrix for vibrational transitions. Thermally-averaged rate coefficients are derived from the obtained cross sections for temperatures in the 10–10000 K interval for excitation of each normal mode of the target molecule. Analytical fits for the rate coefficients for singlets and triplets are provided. In addition, a comprehensive set of calculations are performed for assessing the uncertainty of the present calculations. The uncertainty assessments indicate that the computed observables for vibrational (de-)excitation is reasonable for later use in NO2-containing plasma kinetics modeling.