Low-energy electron-impact ionization of the helium atom using the multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock method

We have extended the multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock method for electron-impact ionization of atoms to investigate the effects of polarization and electron correlation of the target in the initial state. As a test case, the method is applied to calculate triple differential cross sections for electron-impact ionization of He atom at an excess energy of 2 eV for the coplanar theta(12) = pi geometry for equal and unequal energies of two final-state outgoing electrons. To determine the effects of electron correlation between the two outgoing electrons in the final state, the variationally determined screening potential approximation is used. It is found that target correlation in the initial state has smaller effect on the triple differential cross section but the polarization of the target by the incident electron has considerable effect on the triple differential cross section at low incident energy. The results are compared with absolute measurement and other available theoretical results.