Secondary-electron-production cross sections for electron-impact ionization of helium

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Abstract
Measurements of the double-differential cross sections (DDCS) as a function of the ejected energy, angle, and primary energy for electron-impact ionization of helium are reported at incident energies of 200, 500, 1000, and 2000 eV. The ejection angle is varied from 30° to 150° in steps of 15°. The cross sections were obtained by use of a crossed-beam apparatus with an effusive gas source and a pulsed electron beam. Scattered and ejected electrons were energy analyzed by time-of-flight analysis from 2 eV to the primary energy as a function of the ejection angle. The relative measurements were normalized by matching the experimental elastic differential cross sections to absolute measurements at selected angles. Comparisons of the DDCS with available literature values revealed significant differences. At 2000 eV impact energy, first-Born-approximation calculations of the DDCS were found to be in agreement with the present data for ejected energies between 2 and 40 eV. At large angles and lower incident energies the Born calculation results are lower than the present DDCS. The DDCS were fitted with a Legendre-polynomial expansion as a function of ejection angle for fixed ejected and primary energies. The energy distributions of ejected electrons derived from these fits are presented and used to calculate the total ionization cross section.