Cold Collisions of Electrons with Molecules.

Results are presented of high-resolution scattering experiments involving electron collisions with CO₂ and CS₂, between a few meV and 200 meV impact energy. Virtual state scattering is shown to dominate the low-energy behaviour for both species. The most striking features of the scattering spectrum for CS₂ are, however, giant resonances with cross sections greater by more than an order of magnitude than those generally encountered in low-energy scattering. A strong feature centred at 15 meV is attributed to the involvement of and is interpreted to be a consequence of the virtual state effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]