Absolute elastic cross sections for electron scattering from N₂O

Abstract

Absolute elastic differential cross sections are presented for electron scattering from nitrous oxide (N2O) for incident energies between 5 eV and 80 eV. Integral and momentum transfer cross sections have also been determined by extrapolation of the differential cross section data to 0' and 180'. Particular attention has been paid to the measurement of differential cross sections below 10 eV as in this region only one earlier measurement at 5 eV has been reported. Previous works investigating vibrational excitation have shown evidence for a negative ion resonance near 8 eV, however no manifestation of this resonance has been found in the elastic scattering channel in this work. A comparison is also made between the differential cross sections of N2O and CO2 as previously it has been found that the cross sections of isoelectronic molecules (i.e. N2 and CO) exhibit very similar shapes and values.