Collisions of electrons with trimethylphosphine [P(CH3)3] molecules

We report on the absolute total electron-trimethylphosphine scattering cross section (TCS) measured from 0.4 to 400 eV using a linear electron-beam attenuation method. The experimental TCS energy function exhibits very pronounced asymmetric enhancement peaked near 5.5 eV. Calculations were also carried out to obtain the integral elastic and ionization cross sections at intermediate and high energies using the independent atom and the binary-encounter-Bethe approximations, respectively. Their sum, the computed total cross section, is for intermediate energies in a reasonable agreement with the present experimental TCS data. Furthermore, the measured TCS for P(CH3)(3) is compared with the TCSs for some other phosphines [PH3, PF3] and other methides [B(CD3)(3), N(CH3)(3)]. Analysis clearly shows that exterior atoms of a molecule influence the scattering process more significantly than the central atom.