Regular Article

Electron ionization of the CN⁺ molecule

Department of Physics, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA

^a e-mail: pindzola@physics.auburn.edu

Received: 4 October 2019
Received in final form: 6 December 2019
Published online: 24 January 2020

Abstract

We present electron ionization cross sections for the CN⁺ molecule. A configuration-average distorted-wave method is used to compute the electron ionization cross sections based on earlier molecular structure tabulations. Electron ionization cross sections are calculated for the outer 4 subshells of the 1σ²2σ²3σ²4σ²1π²5σ² ground configuration and for the outer 3 subshells of the 1σ² 2σ²3σ²4σ²1π⁴ excited configuration. The total electron ionization cross sections are compared with recent total crossed-beams measurements that include production of CN²⁺, C⁺, C²⁺, N⁺, and N²⁺. The total theoretical and experimental cross sections are in fairly good agreement, especially at the higher electron energies.