Electron impact excitation of the electronic states ofN2. II. Integral cross sections at incident energies from 10 to 50 eV

Abstract

Normalized integral cross-sections for the electron impact excitation of the lowest three singlet ($a^{\prime }, a, w$) and lowest five triplet ($A, B, W, B^{\prime }, C$) valence electronic states of ${\mathrm{N}}_2$, and of the two ($3s{\sigma }_g$) Rydberg states ($E, a^{\prime }$), have been determined at seven incident electron energies ranging from 10 to 50 eV. These cross sections were obtained by integrating the differential cross section reported in the preceding paper, over all scattering angles. The cross sections for excitation of the $W$, $B^{\prime }$, and $a^{\prime }$ states are considerably larger than previously estimated, that for excitation of the $C$ state is in excellent agreement with previously reported values, while those for the $A$, $B$, and $a$ states are smaller than previous results. Theoretical cross sections obtained with Born-type theories give integral cross sections that are in surprisingly good agreement for many of the excited states, but in a few cases ($A, W, B^{\prime }, a^{\prime }$) the theoretical cross sections are in poor agreement.