Electron-Induced Excitation, Recombination, and Dissociation of Molecular Ions Initiating the Formation of Complex Organic Molecules

Abstract

We review the study of dissociative recombination and rovibrational excitation of diatomic and small polyatomic molecular ions initiating complex organic molecules formation. In particular, we show how multichannel quantum defect theory (MQDT) and R-matrix methods are used to compute cross-sections and rate coefficients for cations in well-defined rovibrational levels of the ground electronic state, from sub-meV up to a few eV collision energies. The most recent MQDT results are compared either with other theoretical data or with measured data obtained in storage-ring experiments.