Elastic and total cross sections for electron scattering by nitrogen molecule in the intermediate energy range

The Schwinger variational iterative method combined with the distorted-wave approximation is applied to the calculation of differential, integral and momentum transfer cross sections for elastic electron- scattering in the 20-800 eV energy range. In this study, a complex optical potential consisting of static, exchange, correlation-polarization plus absorption contributions, derived from a fully molecular wavefunction, is used for the electron-molecule interaction. It is shown that the introduction of absorption effects influences significantly the calculated differential cross sections in the intermediate and high incident energy range. Particularly, in the 50-300 eV range, the used model absorption potential has improved significantly the agreement between calculated results and the available experimental data.