Low-energy electron scattering by oxygen molecules: II. vibrational excitation

The R-matrix method has been applied to study the scattering of low-energy electrons by molecular oxygen in the 2ns scattering symmetry. The non-adiabatic approach has been adopted to obtain cross sections corresponding to purely elastic scattering and excitation to the i = I, 2 and 3 vibrational levels of the 3ground state for energies ranging from threshold to 1.0 eV. In addition, cross sections for excitation to the v = 0 vibrational level of the 1 Ag excited state are presented for energies below 1.6 eV. A nnmber of the cross sections are dominated by narrow resonances corresponding to the vibrational levels of the 2ns state of OJ. The positions and widths of these resonances bave been calculated and are found to be in good agreement with the experiments of Field et al (1991).