ELECTRONIC EXCITATION OF AXIS-ORIENTED DIATOMIC-MOLECULES

Results of investigations of orientation-dependent effects in electron-molecule scattering are reported. The asymmetry of the orbital part of the electronic wavefunctions is examined in detail. It is shown that the asymmetry of the electronic-charge distribution, for any fixed orientation of the molecular axis, can be described in terms of two parameters which are functions of collision energy and the scattering geometry. A third parameter is required to characterize the rotation of the electronic charge cloud around the internuclear axis. The general theory is illustrated by results of R-matrix calculations for these three parameters and the differential cross sections for some collision energies and molecular-axis orientations.