Total cross sections for electron scattering with halocarbon molecules

A theoretical study on electron collision with chlorinated methanes: CH2Cl2 and CHCl3, brominated methanes: CH2Br2, CHBr3 and CBr4 and some mono chloroalkanes: CnH2n+1Cl (n = 2-4) molecules in gaseous ground state is undertaken to report elastic, inelastic and total cross sections in the 20-5000 eV energy range. The target molecule is represented as a sum of various scattering centres, which are assumed to scatter electrons independently. The spherical complex optical potential (SCOP) is formulated to represent the interaction dynamics between the electron and the constituent scattering centres. Using SCOP, the quantum mechanical scattering problem is solved through partial wave analysis. The results obtained for CH2Cl2 and CHCl3 are compared with the available experimental and theoretical values. The elastic cross section for CBr4 shows satisfactory agreement with the previous available data. The cross sections for CH2Br2, CHBr3, and CnH2n+1Cl (n = 2-4) molecules presented in this work are reported for the first time.