Président du jury Descouvemont, Pierre
Promoteur Vaeck, Nathalie
Publication Non publié, 2010-10-14
| Résumé : | In this thesis, we present a theoretical investigation of reactive processes involving the HeH$^+$ molecular ion, with applications in laboratory and astrophysical plasma physics. We consider in particular two processes, which are the charge transfer in H + He$^+$ collisions at low energy from a molecular approach and the photodissociation of HeH$^+$. At the molecular level, the cross section is the basic quantity that has to be determined in order to achieve an understanding of reactive processes. Its calculation will be based on the description of the reactions using an emph{ab initio}, quantum mechanical approach. In this work, we will rely on the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, which allows the molecular motion to be separated into an electronic and a nuclear motion. The evaluation of cross sections then follows two steps. The first is the determination of the electronic structure of the molecule. We will calculate the adiabatic potential energy curves of the excited electronic states as well as the dipole matrix elements between these states. The non-adiabatic radial and rotational couplings, which result from the breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, are also estimated. The second step is to solve the nuclear motion, which we achieve using a time-dependent method based on the propagation of wave packets on the coupled electronic states. A particular emphasis will be put on the importance of the excited states and of the non-adiabatic couplings in the description of reactive processes. In the treatment of the charge transfer reaction between H and He$^+$ in excited states, it is well known that the non-adiabatic radial couplings cannot be neglected. However, we will show that the inclusion of the non-adiabatic rotational couplings is also necessary in order to obtain accurate state-to-state cross sections. In the description of the photodissociation of HeH$^+$ from its ground state, we will show the influence of the excited states on the rate constant and the role of the non-adiabatic radial couplings in the determination of partial cross sections. We will also consider the possible astrophysical applications of the first triplet state of HeH$^+$. We will show that this state is metastable by evaluating its lifetime, and calculate the cross sections and rate constants for the photodissociation and radiative association of HeH$^+$ in this state. |
