Rotational Transitions in the N Ion Induced by Collisions with Helium Atoms in Cold Helium Plasmas. A Quasiclassical Trajectory Study.

Cross-sections of state-to-state rotational transitions in electronically ground-state (X ) ions induced by collisions with He atoms have been calculated using a quasiclassical trajectory method and a set of artificial neural networks representing the /He potential energy surface. The training points for the neural networks have been calculated at a MCSCF (multi-configuration self-consistent field)/aug-cc-pVQZ level. A broad range of the /He collision energy has been considered (  eV) and the efficiency of vibrational transitions in the ion has also been analyzed. It has been found that vibrational transitions are negligible with respect to rotational transitions up to  eV and that above this energy, both rotational and vibrational transitions in are marginal in the /He collisions.