Distorted wave Born and three-body distorted wave Born approximation calculations of the fully differential cross section for electron-impact ionization of nitrogen molecules

Junfang Gao; D H Madison; J L Peacher

doi:10.1063/1.2126971

Distorted wave Born and three-body distorted wave Born approximation calculations of the fully differential cross section for electron-impact ionization of nitrogen molecules

J Chem Phys. 2005 Nov 22;123(20):204314. doi: 10.1063/1.2126971.

Authors

Junfang Gao¹, D H Madison, J L Peacher

Affiliation

¹ Department of Physics, University of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla, MO 65409-0460, USA. jgzm6@umr.edu

PMID: 16351263
DOI: 10.1063/1.2126971

Abstract

Currently there are no reliable theoretical approaches for calculating fully differential cross sections (FDCSs) for low-energy electron-impact ionization of large molecules. We have recently proposed the orientation-averaged molecular orbital (OAMO) for calculating cross sections averaged over molecular orientations. In this paper, we use the OAMO to calculate distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) and molecular three-body distorted wave (M3DW) Born approximation FDCS for electron-impact ionization of the nitrogen molecule. Both coplanar symmetric and asymmetric FDCSs are investigated in the energy range of 35.6-400 eV. By comparing with the experimental data, we found that the M3DW is reasonably accurate in this energy range. We also found that the postcollision interaction plays a sufficiently important role and that the DWBA is not reliable.