Cross sections for scattering of electrons from atomic nitrogen, 1998

We studied radiative and electron collisional processes for atomic nitrogen. The calculations of excitation energies, oscillator strengths, transition probabilities, and radiative life-times of the excited states are carried out using the configuration interaction method. The lowest 20 LS states belonging to the configurations 2s22p3, 2s2p4, 2s22p23s, 2s22p23p, 2s22p23d, and 2s22p24s are considered in these calculations. The calculation of cross sections for scattering of electrons from atomic nitrogen is performed in a close-coupling approximation using the R-matrix method. Differential and integral cross sections are calculated for both elastic and inelastic scattering. The cross sections for the resonance 4S� - 2s22p23s 4P and 4S� -2s2p4 4P transitions and for the forbidden 4S�-2D�, 4S� -2 P�, and 2D� -2 P� transitions are compared with the available theoretical and experimental results. The overall agreement with the experimental results is from excellent to good. Accurate atomic data such as these are important in the study of the physics and chemistry of the Earth and other planetary atmospheres and also in the modeling of laboratory and astrophysical plasmas