Electron-impact excitation and ionization of atomic boron at low and intermediate energies

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study of electron collisions with boron atoms by using the B-spline R-matrix method for electron energies ranging from threshold to 100 eV. Elastic, excitation, and ionization cross sections were obtained for all transitions between the lowest 11 states of boron. A multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock method with nonorthogonal term-dependent orbitals was employed to generate accurate wave functions for the target states. Close-coupling expansions including 13, 51, and 999 physical and pseudo-target states of boron were used to check the sensitivity of the results to changes in the theoretical model. The cross-section dataset obtained from the large-scale calculations is expected to be sufficiently accurate and comprehensive for most current modeling applications involving neutral boron.