Electron Impact Excitation of Molecular Nitrogen

We present differential cross-sections for electron impact excitation of the N$_{2}$ b,c,o $^{1}\Pi _{u}$ and b$'$,c$'$ $^{1}\Sigma _{g}^{+}$ from the X$^{1}\Sigma _{g}^{+}$ ground state at 17.5eV, 20eV, 30eV, 50eV and 100eV for scattering angles from 5$^{\circ}$ to 130$^{\circ}$. The DCSs were obtained by unfolding the energy loss spectrum of N$_{2}$ taking into account Rydberg-valence mixing between these levels. These DCSs constitute the first systematic study of the high-lying states of N$_{2}$ of importance in plasma and astrophysics applications.