Electron scattering from germanium tetrafluoride

Abstract

This paper describes the use of two methodologies to find the electron impact total cross sections (TCS) for GeF₄ molecule from 1–5000 eV. The ab initio R-matrix method is used at low impact energies and the spherical complex optical potential (SCOP) formalism at intermediate to high energies. The TCS from both formalisms match quite well at the overlapping energy (∼12 eV) allowing us to predict the cross section for such a wide energy range. Besides TCS, calculations for electronic excitation, rotational excitation, momentum transfer and differential elastic cross sections are also reported using the R-matrix method. A broad resonant feature at 5.69 eV due to degenerate ²B₁, ²B₂ and ²B₃ states is observed, revealing the probability of anion formation by an electron attachment process and further decay to neutral and negative ion fragments. The electronic and rotational excitation cross sections for e-GeF₄ scattering are reported for the first time.