ELECTRONIC EXCITATION OF AXIS-ORIENTED DIATOMIC-MOLECULES

Results of investigations of orientation-dependent effects in electron -molecule scattering are reported. The asymmetry of the orbital part o f the electronic wavefunctions is examined in detail. It is shown that the asymmetry of the electronic-charge distribution, for any fixed or ientation of the molecular axis, can be described in terms of two para meters which are functions of collision energy and the scattering geom etry. A third parameter is required to characterize the rotation of th e electronic charge cloud around the internuclear axis. The general th eory is illustrated by results of R-matrix calculations for these thre e parameters and the differential cross sections for some collision en ergies and molecular-axis orientations.