Low-energy electron scattering by atomic nitrogen

Low-energy cross sections for elastic and inelastic scattering of electrons by atomic nitrogen are calculated over an incident energy range from threshold to 13.6eV, using the R -matrix multichannel method. The electron-atom wavefunction expansion includes all three terms of the ground 1 s 2 2 s 2 2 p 3 ( 4 S o , 2 D o , 2 P o ) configuration together with four pseudo-states determined to represent the polarizabilities of all three ground state terms as well as short range correlation effects. An extensive comparison is performed between the present results and various other theoretical and experimental data and significant differences are found. The present sophisticated ab initio calculation did not produce a low-energy 3 P e resonant feature in the elastic scattering cross section. The cross section was therefore calculated by shifting the 1 s 2 2 s 2 2 p 4 3 P e channel energy so that theory and experiment were in accord with regard to the position of this resonant feature. Further experimental and theoretical work on this feature is clearly desirable.