Double ionization of helium by electron-impact: complete pictures of the four-body breakup dynamics

Abstract

The dynamics of He double ionization by 2 keV electron impact is studied experimentally for a momentum transfer of 0.6 a.u. at excess energies of 10 and 40 eV. Complete sets of fivefold differential cross sections are presented for all electron emission angles in coplanar geometry. Contributions beyond the first Born approximation are identified comparing experimental data with first order convergent close-coupling calculations which are in considerably better agreement with the present experiment than with the earlier measurement of Kheifets et al. [J. Phys. B 32, 5047 (1999)].