Vibrational excitation of molecules by electron impact via the virtual intermediate state

Abstract

To describe inelastic resonant electron-molecule collisions, two models have been established. These models have been shown to be exactly solvable (i.e. one can evaluate all physical characteristics of the processes by solving the three-term recurrence relation without any extra mathematical assumptions). The models treat all accessible channels (including the associative detachment and dissociative attachment) on the same basis and impose no restrictions on the intermediate state. As an example, the virtual intermediate state has been considered in connection with e-+HCl collisions. The cross-sections of vibrational excitation and dissociative attachment processes have been computed and qualitative agreement with the available experimental data has been obtained.