A model potential for computing total ionization cross sections of atoms and molecules by electron impact

Abstract

We propose a model potential for computing total ionization cross sections for atoms and molecules by electron impact. The potential is obtained by a fitting procedure using the Binary-Encounter-Bethe model cross sections as a starting point. We present total ionization cross section for hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen atoms and for hydrogen, nitrogen, water, methane and benzene molecules. The results obtained with our model potential are compared with results obtained with the Binary-Encounter-Bethe model and with the first Born approximation, and agreement is quite good. Our results show that this potential could be used to account for the ionization channel in an electron-molecule collision calculation.

Molecular collisions, photoionization and dynamics: honouring Professor Vincent McKoy

“…García-Abenza and co-workers [16] reported on a complete data set for the simulation of electron transport through gaseous tetrahydrofuran in the energy range 1-100 eV as a significant attempt to understand radiation damage in biological related molecules particle track simulations, whilst Randi et al [17] described elastic, electronically inelastic, total ionization and total cross sections for the scattering of electrons by trans-formic acid. Falkowski et al [18,19], within the relevance of a model potential for computing total ionization cross sections of atoms and molecules by electron impact, reported on hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen atoms and for hydrogen, nitrogen, water, methane and benzene molecules. For benzene, they calculated differential and integral cross sections for elastic and electronic excitation, as well as total cross sections, for electron scattering at impact energies in the 10-50 eV range.…”