Excitation of vibrational levels up to ν=17 in N2by electron impact in the 0-5 eV region

The energy dependences of the vibrational excitation of up to nu =17 by electron impact in N 2 are reported from threshold to approximately 5 eV. The resulting relative differential cross sections are normalised to the absolute integral value of Jung et al. (1982) at 2.25 eV. The curve shapes are compared with published theoretical results where available. The direct process near threshold of the first three vibrational levels is also investigated and the nu =1 results are compared with the results of electron drift experiments.