We report an investigation on electron collisions with two nitrogen-containing compounds, namely ammonia (NH 3 ) and formamide (NH 2 CHO). For ammonia, both theoretical and experimental differential, integral, and momentum-transfer cross sections, as well as calculated grand-total and total absorption cross sections, are reported in the 50-500 eV incident energy range. Calculated results of various cross sections are also reported for energies below 50 eV. Experimentally, angular distributions of the scattered electrons were measured using a crossed electron beam-molecular beam geometry and then converted to absolute differential cross sections using the relative flow technique. Absolute integral and momentum-transfer cross sections for elastic e − -ammonia scattering were also derived from the measured differential cross sections. For formamide, only theoretical cross sections are presented in the 1-500 eV incident energy range. A single-center-expansion technique combined with the method of Padé was used in our calculations. For both targets, our calculated cross sections are compared with the present measured data and with the theoretical and experimental data available in the literature and show generally good agreement. Moreover, for formamide, two shape resonances located at 3.5 eV and 15 eV which correspond to the continuum 2 A and 2 A scattering symmetries, respectively, are identified. The former can be associated to the 2 B 1 shape resonance in formaldehyde located at around 2.5 eV, whereas the latter can be related to the 2 E resonance in ammonia at about 10 eV. Such correspondence is very interesting and so supports the investigation on electron interaction with small building blocks, instead of with larger biomolecules.

We present a joint theoretical-experimental study on electron scattering by methanol (CH(3)OH) and ethanol (C(2)H(5)OH) in a wide energy range. Experimental differential, integral and momentum-transfer cross sections for elastic electron scattering by ethanol are reported in the 100-1000 eV energy range. The experimental angular distributions of the energy-selected electrons are measured and converted to absolute cross sections using the relative flow technique. Moreover, elastic, total, and total absorption cross sections for both alcohols are calculated in the 1-500 eV energy range. A complex optical potential is used to represent the dynamics of the electron-alcohol interaction, whereas the scattering equations are solved iteratively using the Padé's approximant technique. Our calculated data agree well with those obtained using the Schwinger multichannel method at energies up to 20 eV. Discrepancies at high energies indicate the importance of absorption effects, included in our calculations. In general, the comparison between our theoretical and experimental results, as well as with other experimental data available in the literature, also show good agreement. Nevertheless, the discrepancy between the theoretical and experimental total cross sections at low incident energies suggests that the experimental cross sections measured using the transmission technique for polar targets should be reviewed.

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First-ordex' many-body theory has been used to calculate the differential and integral cross sections for electron-impact excitation of all the 3s, 3s' levels, and certain of the 3p, 3p' levels of neon, fox' incident electron enex'gies ranging from 20 to 120 eV. The x'esulting differential cross sections foI' thc excitation of thc optically allo&cd Pl and thc Pl lcvcls sholv, foI thc 10 484 80 Rngular range, a discrepancy no gx'eatex than 15% when compared vrith x'ecent expeximental results, except fol very fcw points. Spin-orbit coupling &as included in thc Xvave fuQctions and its cffcct on dctclminlng thc diffclcntial cross sections foI thc I l lcvcl %'Rs found to bc very importRQt foI scattering angles less than 40'. For the differential cross sections of the other 3s, 3s' levels the discx'epancy in the 30'&8& 80' x'ange is only slightly larger than the experimental erx'ors. For the 3p, 3p' levels considered here, ere have found strong disagreement mth experimental data and there Is also substantial disagrccmcnt among thc vanous thcorctical I'csults. Is interesting to note though that thc f11st reported calculation for the electron-impact excitation of the unresolved 3s, 3s' levels of neon by Massey and Mohr " was with the distorted-wave approximation with thc additional slmpli" fication that the asymptotic form of the distorted waves were Used and the partial-wave phase shifts were calculated using Jeffrey's (also called &KB) approximation.