Low energy electron and positron impact differential cross sections for the ionization of water molecules in the coplanar and perpendicular kinematics

P. Singh , G. Purohit , C. Champion (1) , D. Sébilleau (2) , D. Madison (3)

1 CELIA - Centre d'Etudes Lasers Intenses et Applications
2 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes
3 Missouri S&T - Missouri University of Science and Technology

We report here triply differential cross sections (TDCSs) for 81 eV electron and positron-impact ionization of the combined (1b 1 + 3a 1 ) orbitals of the water molecule by using the second-order distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA2) for ejection electron and positron energies of 5 eV and 10 eV and different momentum transfer conditions. The electron-impact TDCS will be compared with the experimental data measured by Ren et al. [Phys. Rev. A 95, 022701 (2017)] and with the molecular 3-body distorted wave (M3DW) approximation results in the scattering plane as well as the perpendicular plane. The DWBA2 results are in better agreement with the experiment than the M3DW results for the scattering plane, and the M3DW results are somewhat better for the perpendicular plane. This observation is explained in terms of collision interactions. The electron and positron TDCSs are indistinguishable in the scattering plane. In the perpendicular plane, the positron results are similar in shape, but smaller in magnitude. However, the difference reduces with increasing projectile scattering angle and increasing ejected electron energy.

Mots clés: Born approximation; Distortion (waves); Electron energy levels; Impact ionization; Ionization of liquids; Molecules; Positrons; Approximation results; Collision interaction; Differential cross section; Distorted wave Born approximation; Ejected electrons; Low energy electrons; Perpendicular-plane; Scattering angles; Electrons

Domaines: Physique [physics]

P. Singh, G. Purohit, C. Champion, D. Sébilleau, D. Madison. Low energy electron and positron impact differential cross sections for the ionization of water molecules in the coplanar and perpendicular kinematics. Journal of Chemical Physics, 2019, 150 (5), pp.054304. ⟨10.1063/1.5088966⟩. ⟨hal-02050891⟩