DOUBLE-DIFFERENTIAL AND TRIPLE-DIFFERENTIAL CROSS-SECTIONS FOR ELECTRON-IMPACT IONIZATION OF HELIUM

Triple- (TDCS) and double- (DDCS) differential cross sections have been calculated for single ionization in electron-helium collisions for asymmetric geometry at intermediate and medium high energies. The TDCS and DDCS results have been presented for different kinematical situations and have been compared with the corresponding experiments. In the present prescription, the final-state wave function involves the correlation between the two continuum electrons and satisfies the three-body asymptotic boundary condition (for asymmetric geometry), which is an important criterion for reliable ionization cross sections. The sensitivity of the ionization cross sections (particularly of the TDCS) with respect to the choice of the bound-state wave function of the He atom has also been studied, using two different forms of wave function of the He atom. The binary-to-recoil peak intensity ratio against momentum transfer in TDCS is found to be in closer agreement with the experiment for the simple Hylleraas wave function than for the Hartree-Fock wave function. The DDCS results are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data of Müller-Fiedler et al. [J. Phys. B 19, 1211 (1986)] for lower ejected energy (E2), while for higher E2 the results are closer to the measurements of Shyn et al. [Phys. Rev. A 19, 557 (1979)] and Avaldi et al. [Nuovo Cimento D 9, 97 (1987)]. © 1995 The American Physical Society.