Dissociation of F2 by electron impact excitation of the lowest u3 electronic state

An ab initio theoretical study is reported for dissociation of F2 via excitation of the lowest u3 electronic state by electron impact. Differential and integrated cross sections are given for impact energies from 5 to 40 eV. Our distorted-wave model predicts a resonancelike feature in the integrated cross section near threshold with a maximum value of about 0.4×10-16 cm2. When target polarization effects are included this feature disappears and the maximum cross section is reduced to about 0.15×10-16 cm2.