Electron-impact ionization of Li2 using a time-dependent close-coupling method

The time-dependent close-coupling method is applied to calculate the electron-impact ionization of a diatomic molecule with interior closed subshells. The ionization of the outer 2sσ subshell of Li2(1sσ 22pσ 22sσ 2) is carried out using a standard core orthogonalization method. At the peak of the Li2 cross section, the nonperturbative time-dependent close-coupling cross sections are found to be lower than perturbative distorted-wave cross sections. The reductions due to electron correlation effects are in keeping with previous reductions of peak cross sections seen in the electron-impact ionization of neutral atoms.