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Mol-e Orlando-Paris group

Department of Physics, University of Florida

Excitation, dissociation and photonic processes in collisions of electrons with molecules and molecular ions

University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA and École CentraleSupélec, Paris, France

The main expertise of the group is the first-principles theoretical description of elementary processes in molecular plasma. From point of view of applications, the focus of current research is determination of cross sections of various processes taking place in collisions of electrons with diatomic and small polyatomic molecules and molecular ions. From the point of view of fundamental physics, our research revolves around a fully-quantum or adiabatic quantum description of the dynamics of small polyatomic molecules and collisions involving molecules, electrons, and photons. Our research activities have been continuously funded by national and international agencies for about 20 year are aimed at understanding elementary processes in the interstellar medium, in low-temperature plasma used in technological applications (thermonuclear fusion plasma and plasma etching in electronics), in problems related to the field of coherent quantum control, and others. One if us is also a member of an expert team for the development of databases on electron-molecule processes to support the KSTAR tokamak in South Korea.

The figure below gives an example of theoretical cross section for dissociative recombination of CH+ and compares the theoretical cross section with the experimental data from a recent cryogenic storage ring experiment (CSR) performed in Heidelberg by the group of A. Wolf. The blue line shows the raw theoretical data for the CH+ being in the ground rovibronic state. The black and red lines are obtained assuming that there is a thermal distribution over rotational states of the ion at temperatures 30K and 300K, correspondingly.

Theoretical cross section for dissociative recombination of CH+ and comparison with experimental data from CSR experiments
Theoretical cross section for dissociative recombination of CH+ and comparison with experimental data from CSR experiments.
Principal Researchers
Contact

Professor Viatcheslav KOKOOULINE
Group Website
Email: slavako@ucf.edu

References
  • [1] M. Ayouz et al., "Cross Sections and Rate Coefficients for Vibrational Excitation of H2O by Electron Impact", Atoms 9, 62 (2021). [link to article]
  • [2] M. Song et al., "Cross Sections for Electron Collisions with H2O", Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data 50, 023103 (2021). [link to article]
  • [3] X. Jiang et al., "Theory of dissociative recombination of molecular ions with competing direct and indirect mechanisms applied to CH+", Physical Review A 104, 042801 (2021). [link to article]
  • [4] C. Hong Yuen and V. Kokoouline, "Jahn-Teller effect in three-body recombination of hydrogen atoms", Physical Review A 101, 042709 (2020). [link to article]
  • [5] M. Song et al., "“Recommended” cross sections for electron collisions with molecules", The European Physical Journal D 74, 60 (2020). [link to article]
  • [6] X. Jiang et al., "Cross sections for vibronic excitation of CH+ by low-energy electron impact", Physical Review A 100, 062711 (2019). [link to article]
  • [7] Z. J. Mezei et al., "Electron-Induced Excitation, Recombination, and Dissociation of Molecular Ions Initiating the Formation of Complex Organic Molecules", ACS Earth and Space Chemistry 3, 2376-2389 (2019). [link to article]
  • [8] M. Ayouz and V. Kokoouline, "Cross Sections and Rate Coefficients for Rovibrational Excitation of HeH+ Isotopologues by Electron Impact", Atoms 7, 67 (2019). [link to article]
  • [9] M. Khamesian et al., "Cross Sections and Rate Coefficients for Rotational Excitation of HeH+ Molecule by Electron Impact", Atoms 6, 49 (2018). [link to article]

Keywords

Dissociative Attachment Dissociative Recombination Electron Impact Dissociation Electron Impact Excitation Theory