Collisions of low-energy electrons with molecules control many aspects of the environment and modern technologies. For example:-

• Initiating plasma etching processes.
• Controlling the action of many lasers.
• Controlling the ignition of internal combustion engines.
• Determining edge effects in fusion plasmas.
• Causing radiation damage in biological tissue.
• Dictating the behaviour of the earth’s ionosphere.

Measurements of these collisions are both expensive and difficult to perform, and their theoretical determination requires the use of sophisticated procedures based on the application of quantum mechanics.

The new Quantemol-N code provides an expert interface for driving the highly sophisticated UK molecular R-matrix code. By specifying a few easily determined molecular parameters the user can obtain parameters including collision cross sections, excitation cross sections and rates for electron collisions with molecules specified by the user.