Interference Phenomenon in Electron-Molecule Collisions

Abstract

This article discusses how the pattern of elastic scattering of an electron on a pair of identical atomic centers is modified if we abandon the assumption, standard in molecular physics, that outside of some molecular sphere surrounding the centers, the wave function of the molecular continuum is atomic-like, being a linear combination of the regular and irregular solutions of the wave equation. For this purpose, the elastic scattering of slow particles by a pair of non- overlapping short-range potentials has been studied. The continuum wave function of the particle is represented as a combination of a plane wave and two spherical s-waves propagating freely throughout space. The asymptotic behavior of this function determines the amplitude of elastic particle scattering in closed form. It is demonstrated that this amplitude can be represented as a partial expansion in a set of the orthonormal functions Zλ(r) other than spherical harmonics Ylm(r). General formulas for these functions are obtained. The coefficients of the scattering amplitude expansion into a series of functions Zλ(r) and determine the scattering phases ηλ(k) for the considered two- atomic target. The special features of the S-matrix method for the case of arbitrary non-spherical potentials are discussed.