Electron Impact Ionization of Metastable States of Diatomic Molecules

Abstract

The Binary-Encounter Bethe approach was applied to the estimation of total ionization induced by electron impact in metastable states of diatomic molecules. The cross sections recently obtained for N2 and CO are reviewed and the new results for H2 are presented, discussing their reliability through the comparison with other theoretical methods.

Keywords

• metastable states
• electron-impact ionization
• BEB approach
• elementary processes in plasmas