Rotational transitions induced by collisions of HD$^{+}$ ions with low energy electrons

Abstract

A series of Multichannel Quantum Defect Theory-based computations have been performed, in order to produce the cross sections of rotational transitions (excitations $N_{i}^{+}-2 \rightarrow$ $N_{i}^{+}$, de-excitations $N_{i}^{+}$ $\rightarrow$ $N_{i}^{+}-2$, with $N_{i}^{+}=2$ to $10$) and of their competitive process, the dissociative recombination, induced by collisions of HD$^+$ ions with electrons in the energy range $10^{-5}$ to 0.3 eV. Maxwell anisotropic rate coefficients, obtained from these cross sections in the conditions of the Heidelberg Test Storage Ring (TSR) experiments ($k_{B}T_{t}=2.8$ meV and $k_{B}T_{l}=45$ $\mu$eV), have been reported for those processes in the same electronic energy range. Maxwell isotropic rate coefficients have been as well presented for electronic temperatures up to a few hundreds of Kelvins. Very good overall agreement is found between our results for rotational transitions and the former theoretical computations as well as with experiment. Furthermore, owing to the full rotational computations performed, the accuracy of the resulting dissociative recombination cross sections is considerably improved.