Elastic and total scattering cross section for halogen substituted fluoromethane molecules

Highlights: • Quantum mechanical approach to find elastic and total CS by e- impact. • Multi centre spherical complex optical potential formalism used. • CS reported for many fluoromethane molecules. • Halogenation and size effect were studied. • For some molecules CS has been reported for the first time. - Abstract: The electron scattering elastic and total scattering cross section for CF₃X and CF₂X₂ (where X = H, Cl, Br, and I) molecules are reported in this article for incident energies from 30 to 5000 eV. These cross sections are relevant to various fields of applied interest, especially to plasma modelling. The calculations are performed using the quantum mechanical approach, where the potential representing the interaction dynamics between the incoming electron and the scattering centre of the molecule is formulated using spherical complex optical potential. This potential is then incorporated to Schrödinger equation, which is solved through partial wave analysis. The results obtained in the present calculation are compared with previously available experimental and theoretical data.