Elastic and absorption cross sections for electron–hydroxyl radical collisions

Abstract

In this work, we report a theoretical study on electron collisions with OH radicals in the low and intermediate energy ranges. Calculated elastic differential, integral, and momentum-transfer cross sections as well as grand-total (elastic + inelastic) and total absorption cross sections for electron-OH collisions are reported in the 1–500-eV range. A complex optical potential composed by static, exchange, correlation-polarization plus absorption contributions, derived from a fully molecular wave function, is used to describe the interaction dynamics. The Schwinger variational iterative method combined with the distorted-wave approximation is applied to calculate scattering amplitudes. Present calculated results are compared with the existing data for electron-OH scattering in the literature. Also, comparison made between our calculated cross sections for elastic scattering with the theoretical and experimental results for electron-H2O collisions has revealed remarkable similarity even at incident energies as low as 2 eV.