Electron-induced excitation, recombination and dissociation of molecular ions initiating the formation of complex organic molecules

TL;DR

This paper reviews how electron interactions with molecular ions influence the formation of complex organic molecules, emphasizing theoretical calculations and experimental comparisons.

Contribution

It introduces the application of MQDT and R-matrix methods to compute electron collision cross sections and rate coefficients for molecular ions.

Findings

MQDT results align well with experimental data

Theoretical methods effectively predict electron-induced processes

Insights into molecular ion excitation and recombination mechanisms

Abstract

We review the study of dissociative recombination and ro-vibrational excitation of diatomic and small polyatomic molecular ions initiating complex organic molecules formation. In particular, we show how Multichannel Quantum Defect Theory (MQDT) and R-matrix methods are used to compute cross sections and rate coefficients for cations in well defined ro-vibrational levels of the ground electronic state, from sub-meV up to few eV collision energies. The most recent MQDT results are compared with either other theoretical data, or with measured data obtained in storage-ring experiments.