PPT Slide
Elastic scattering of low (10-50 eV) kinetic energy electrons
from free diatomic molecules
is studied using a single-center expansion of the full molecular potential.
Dynamic exchange and polarization are included in a local form.
The calculated elastic differential scattering cross-sections
for electron impact on CO and N2
are in good agreement with available experimental data.
The importance of using the full molecular potential
instead of a two-center potential approach is pointed out.
These corrections are small for energies above 50 eV,
but they become increasingly important at lower energies.
When discussing the angular distributions of elastically-scattered electrons
from oriented molecules (like surface adsorbates),
we show that these corrections are particularly significant.
The results have implications for other electron scattering problems
such as those encountered in low-energy photoelectron diffraction
from both core and valence levels.