Collisions of polarized electrons with O_2

Abstract

Recently several methods have been developed and applied to studies of electron‐molecule collisions at low impact energies. These approaches include the R‐matrix, Linear algebraic, complex Kohn, and Schwinger multichannel (SMC) methods. In principle, these methods can account for important physical effects in such collisions which arise from open and closed electronic channels. In this paper we will report some results of preliminary studies of collisions of low‐energy electrons with molecular oxygen, an open‐shell system. In contrast to closed‐shell systems such as H_2 and N_2, the electron polarization may change in collisions with these open‐shell targets due to spin‐exchange processes. We have determined these spin‐exchange effects for elastic e‐O_2 collisions and found them to be much smaller than those seen in alkali atoms such as Na. Our results compare well with those of recent measurements of these effects for O_2 by Hanne and his collaborators.

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