Low-energy electronic excitation of O2by electron impact

Abstract

The electron impact excitation cross sections of molecular oxygen from the X ³ Sigma _g^- ground state to the a ¹ Delta _g and b ¹ Sigma _g⁺ metastable excited states are calculated using the R-matrix method. Good agreement is obtained with experiment over an incident-electron energy range from threshold to 20 eV. The calculation, which was carried out at the equilibrium internuclear separation of the electronic ground state, is now being extended to other internuclear separations to enable vibrational excitation and dissociative attachment cross sections to be predicted.