Dissociative Electron Attachment to chloroacetylene

The production of two fragments with $\Sigma$ symmetry from electron-impact dissociation of C$_2$H$_2$, which has only a low lying $\pi^*$ resonance at equilibrium geometry, has been explained by the existence of interactions with $\sigma^*$ resonances at bent geometries. We are investigating the presence of such multidimensional effects in the dissociative attachment of chloroacetylene (C$_2$HCl). We have performed electron scattering calculations using the Complex Kohn variational method to determine the resonance energies and widths of the chloroacetylene resonances as a function of both the Cl--C$_2$H bond distance as well as the variation with C-C stretch and bend. We will discuss our results and our prediction of the dissociation dynamics in comparison to the findings for for C$_2$H$_2$. This work was supported by the U.S. DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences and the National Science Foundation, PHY-05-55401.