The Vibrational and Rotational Excitation of Molecular Hydrogen by Electron Impact

The Born approximation is applied to the collision of electrons with normal hydrogen molecules. Cross sections are calculated for collisions accompanied by the vibration-rotation transitions 0, 0 → n,l ([n = 0, 1], [l = 0, 2, 4]) for incident electron energies between 0 and 250 eV. Special attention is given to the choice of the interaction potential, the form of which has a marked effect upon the pure vibrational excitation function in the low-energy region where a sharp peak appears. The rotational excitation does not show the same sensitivity. Elastic scattering is also treated and the results are in satisfactory agreement with those of previous workers.