Absolute cross sections for dissociative electron attachment to NH3 and CH4

Dissociative electron attachment (DEA) cross sections for NH3 and CH4 are measured in a crossed beam apparatus with special care to eliminate discrimination due to kinetic energy and angular distribution of the fragment ions. The cross sections are put on absolute scale using the relative flow technique. The absolute cross sections for the formation of H− and NH2− from ammonia and H− and CH2− from methane are compared with available data from literature. It is seen that the present results are considerably different from what has been reported before. We also compare the cross sections of the H− channel from these molecules along with that from H2O to those from organic molecules containing alkyl, amino and hydroxyl groups to examine the extent to which the recently observed functional group dependence in the DEA contributes.