Electron collisions—experiment, theory, and applications

Abstract

Electron collisions with atoms, ions, and molecules have represented an important area of 'applied quantum mechanics' for more than a century. This Topical Review is the write-up of the Allis Prize Lecture given by the author at the 2016 meeting of the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society and the 2017 Gaseous Electronics Conference. In light of the enormous size of the field, the examples presented were selected in order to tell the story of how experimental and theoretical/numerical methods have developed over time, how fruitful collaborations between data producers (experimentalists and theorists) and data users have led to significant progress, and how the results of these studies, which were often designed for fundamental research in order to push both experiment and theory to new frontiers, continue to be highly sought after for modeling applications in a variety of fields. The impact of electron collision studies on other fields, such as photoinduced processes and quantum information, is also discussed.

A Relativistic Complex Optical Potential Calculation for Electron–Beryllium Scattering: Recommended Cross Sections

“…In terms of constructing a recommended TICS data base from these results and without any a priori prejudice as to the validity of one method over any other, in the energy range from threshold to 100 eV, we have simply taken the average of the CC, CCC, BSR, RMPS, DWIS(N-1) and ROP results. While it could be argued that the track records of the CCC and BSR approaches, in electron-atom scattering and for a range of scattering processes, 35 is such that some preference might be afforded to them, here we have declined to do so. Our rationale for this is that in those cases where the CCC and BSR methods have been shown to be highly successful, at least for a subset of the open scattering channels, they were able to be benchmarked against independent and accurate measurements.…”

Roadmap on photonic, electronic and atomic collision physics: II. Electron and antimatter interactions

“…These processes include excitation, ionization, recombination, and association. Some recent reviews of electron-driven processes in general have been given by [154,155] and in specific for astrochemistry by [156] and for astrophysics by [157,158]. Here we review a few of the current and future challenges for the field.…”

Generalizations of the R-Matrix Method to the Treatment of the Interaction of Short-Pulse Electromagnetic Radiation with Atoms

“…Another case of spectacular improvement over preceding work is the first BSR calculation for electron collisions with neon atoms [21]. Many more can be found in the Topical Review [12], and the impact of these developments on plasma applications has been substantial as well [22,23].…”