Dissociative recombination of N2H+

The direct and indirect mechanisms of dissociative recombination of N2H+ are theoretically studied. At low energies, the electron capture is found to be driven by recombination into bound Rydberg states, while at collision energies above 0.1 eV, the direct capture and dissociation along electronic resonant states becomes important. Electron-scattering calculations using the complex Kohn variational method are performed to obtain the scattering matrix as well as energy positions and autoionization widths of resonant states. Potential-energy surfaces of electronic bound states of N2H and N2H+ are computed using structure calculations with the multireference configuration interaction method. The cross section for the indirect mechanism is calculated using a vibrational frame transformation of the elements of the scattering matrix at energies just above the ionization threshold. Here vibrational excitations of the ionic core from v = 0 to v = 1 and v = 2 for all three normal modes are considered and autoionization is neglected. The cross section for the direct dissociation along electronic resonant states is computed with wave-packet calculations using the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree method, where all three internal degrees of freedom are considered. The calculated cross sections are compared to measurements.