Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Electronic structure methods are combined with variational fixed-nuclei electron scattering calculations and nuclear dynamics studies to characterize resonant vibrational excitation and electron attachment processes in collisions between low-energy electrons and CF radicals. Several low-lying negative ion states are found which give rise to strong vibrational excitation and which are expected to dominate the low-energy electron scattering cross sections. We have also studied several processes which could lead to production of negative ions (F- and C-), However, in contrast to other recent predictions, we do not find CF in its ground state to be a significant source of negative ion production when interacting with thermal electrons.