Electron-impact total ionization cross sections of hydrocarbon ions

Abstract

The Binary-Encounter-Bethe (BEB) model for electron-impact total ionization cross sections has been applied to CH2+, CH3+, CH4+, C2H2+, C2H4+, C2H6+ and H3O+. The cross sections for the hydrocarbon ions are needed for modeling cool plasmas in fusion devices. No experimental data are available for direct comparison. Molecular constants to generate total ionization cross sections at arbitrary incident electron energies using the BEB formula are presented. A recent experimental result on the ionization of H3O+ is found to be almost 1/20 of the present theory at the cross section peak.