Ionization of Carbon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen by Electron Impact

Published

July 1, 2002

Author(s)

Yong Sik Kim, J P. Desclaux

Abstract

Total ionization cross sections of neutral carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms by electron impact are presented. In our theory we have included possibilities that (a) some target atoms used in an experiment were in metastable state close to the ground state, (b) excitation-autoionization of 2s2p^m exited states may be substantial, and (c) ions produced in experiments may be in excited, low-lying metastable states. The binary- encounter-Bethe (BEB) model of Kim and Rudd [Phys. Rev. A 50, 3954 (1994)] is used to calculate the cross sections for direct ionization. Plane-wave Born cross sections scaled by the method developed by Kim [Phys. Rev. 64, 032713 (2001)] is used to determine the contributions from excitation-autoionization. A sum of the BEB cross sections for direct ionization weighted according to the statistical weights of the final ion states is used to modify the direct ionization cross sections. The combination of the BEB model and the scaled Born cross sections is in excellent agreement with available experimental data. The present method can easily be extended to heavier open-shell atoms.

Citation

Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)

Volume

66

Issue

No. 1

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

carbon, electron-impact ionization, nitrogen, oxygen, theory excitation-autoionization

Citation

, Y. and Desclaux, J. (2002), Ionization of Carbon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen by Electron Impact, Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics) (Accessed July 17, 2024)