Electron momentum spectroscopy experiments and calculations for the production of excited states of He+ and

Abstract

The (e,2e) cross-section for transitions to the n = 2 final state of He+ and the 2sσg, final state of [Formula: see text] have been measured, relative to the cross-section for the transitions to the respective ground state ions, using a highly sensitive momentum dispersive multichannel electron momentum spectrometer. The experimental results for He are compared with plane wave impulse approximation (PWIA) cross-section calculations carried out using two previously published GI wavefunctions and also with two cross-section calculations based on explicitly correlated wavefunctions with energy errors of less than 10 nHartree. The H2 results are compared with calculations by J.W. Liu and V.H. Smith Jr. (Phys. Rev. A, 31, 3003 (1985); erratum: Phys. Rev. A, 39, 3703 (1989)). For both He and H2, significant differences are observed between the measured relative cross-sections and those calculated using the PWIA. While the measurements for He differ from previous work, the results for H2 are consistent with some earlier measurements.