Elastic and related transport cross sections for singly charged ion-atom scattering of light metals (Li, Be, B) and hydrogen

Elastic differential and integral cross sections are calculated using a fully quantum-mechanical treatment and new, highly accurate potential curves, for collisions of light metal atoms (Li, Be, B) or their singly charged ions with hydrogen ions or atoms and their isotopes, over the six-decade range of centre-of-mass collision energy 0.0001-100 eV. In addition, the momentum transfer and viscosity cross sections, relevant to transport modelling, have been computed along with results of the classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) method in an extended energy range (0.01-10000 eV). The CTMC results, though less accurate, also include the inelastic processes of charge transfer, excitation and ionization, enabling improved assessment of the accuracy achieved through comparison of the results of the cross sections obtained with two methods in the overlapping energy range. We also study a fully neutral system, Li + H, using both methods. All of the data calculated here are explicitly tabulated on the World Wide Web for convenient use in plasma modelling and we find a mass-dependent scaling of the cross sections for the hydrogen isotopes.