Rotational transitions induced by collisions of HD⁺ ions with low-energy electrons

O. Motapon (1) , N. Pop , F. Argoubi , J. Zs Mezei (1, 2) , M. D. Epee Epee , A. Faure (3) , M. Telmini , J. Tennyson , I. F. Schneider (1, 2)

1 LOMC - Laboratoire Ondes et Milieux Complexes
2 LAC - Laboratoire Aimé Cotton
3 IPAG - Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble

A series of computations based on multichannel quantum defect theory have been performed in order to produce the cross sections of rotational transitions (excitations Ni+-2→ Ni+, deexcitations Ni+ → Ni+-2, with Ni+=2 to 10) and of their competitive process, the dissociative recombination, induced by collisions of HD⁺ ions with electrons in the energy range 10^-5 to 0.3 eV. Maxwell anisotropic rate coefficients, obtained from these cross sections in the conditions of the Heidelberg Test Storage Ring (TSR) experiments (k_BT_t=2.8 meV and k_BT_l=45 μeV), have been reported for those processes in the same electronic energy range. Maxwell isotropic rate coefficients have been presented as well for electronic temperatures up to a few hundred Kelvins. Very good overall agreement is found between our results for rotational transitions and the former theoretical computations as well as with experiment. Furthermore, due to the full rotational computations performed, the accuracy of the resulting dissociative recombination cross sections is improved considerably.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

O. Motapon, N. Pop, F. Argoubi, J. Zs Mezei, M. D. Epee Epee, et al.. Rotational transitions induced by collisions of HD⁺ ions with low-energy electrons. Physical Review A, 2014, 90, ⟨10.1103/PhysRevA.90.012706⟩. ⟨insu-03618550⟩