Interference Effects for Intermediate Energy Electron-Impact Ionization of H₂ and N₂ Molecules

We have studied electron impact ionization of H ₂ and N ₂ molecules at intermediate energies to look for possible two center interference effects experimentally and theoretically. Here we report a study of the interference factor I for 250 eV electron-impact ionization. The experimental measurements are performed using a crossed-beam-type electron-electron coincidence spectrometer and theoretical calculations are obtained using the Molecular Three Body Distorted Wave Approximation (M3DW). We found that the I-factor demonstrated strong evidence for two-center interference effects for both H ₂ and N ₂ . We also found that the I-factor is more sensitive to projectile angular scans than to ejected electron energy scans which indicate that for the present set of kinematics the diffraction of the projectile from two scattering centers is more important than interference between electron waves emitted from two different centers.