Triple differential cross sections for electron-impact ionization of methane at intermediate energy

Triply differential cross sections for electron and positron impact on methane

We here report theoretical triply differential cross sections (TDCS) for 250 eV electron and positron impact ionization of the methane molecule calculated within the second-order distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA2) for various momentum transfer conditions. The experimental data taken from Işık et al. [J. Phys. B: At., Mol. Opt. Phys. 49, 065203 (2016)] will be compared with the current theoretical predictions as well as molecular three body distorted wave (M3DW) approximation and generalized Sturmian function (GSF) theoretical models in a non-coplanar geometry. In the low analyzer scattering plane, the results obtained within the DWBA2 theory show better agreement with the experimental results compared to the GSF results. The M3DW results also exhibit agreement with the experimental results, in particular in the perpendicular plane geometry. Furthermore, significant differences between electron and positron TDCS were observed.

Improved theoretical calculations for electron-impact ionization of DNA analogue molecules

Ionizing interactions between charged particles and molecules of biological relevance have attracted considerable interest in the last decade due to its importance in medical radiation therapy. We have previously calculated triply differential cross sections for five biomolecules in collaboration with experimental groups. We used the molecular 3-body distorted wave approximation for these calculations. For ionization of biomolecules, experimentalists are unable to determine the orientation of the molecule at the time of ionization, which means that the calculated cross sections need to be averaged over all molecular orientations. At the time the calculations were performed, it was not numerically feasible for us to perform proper averaging over orientations, so we introduced the orientation averaged molecular orbital approximation to make the calculations possible. We now have the computational capability to properly perform this average, so, here, we present new results with a proper average over orientations and compare with the previous calculations and experiment. Since the original calculations, results from two different distorted-wave models have also been published and the new results will also be compared with those calculations. Overall, the new results are in better agreement with the experiment.

Triple differential cross-section measurements for electron-impact ionization of methane from a coplanar geometry to the perpendicular plane

A new study of electron-impact single ionization of the HOMO 1t₂ state of CH₄ has been conducted at incident electron energies 20 eV and 40 eV above the ionization energy of the state. Triple differential cross sections were measured from a coplanar symmetric geometry, where scattered and ionized electrons were detected at equal angles, through to the perpendicular geometry where the outgoing electrons emerged orthogonal to the incident electron beam. At the lower energy, the electrons were detected with equal energies of 10 eV, whereas at the higher energy, data were obtained for equal energies of 20 eV and for unequal energies of 5 eV and 35 eV. The results are compared to a molecular 3-body distorted wave approximation that used a full averaging procedure to allow for the random orientation of the target, an orientation averaged molecular orbital model that averages the target wavefunction over all orientations prior to the collision, and a distorted wave Born approximation that does not include postcollisional interactions.