Displacements of electron ejection energies in near-threshold excitation of autoionizing levels of helium by electron impact

Abstract

The four lowest autoionizing levels in helium, namely (2s 2 ) 1 S, (2s2p) 3 P, (2p 2 ) 1 D and (2s2p) 1 P, have been studied near their thresholds for excitation by electron impact. Features in the spectra of electrons ejected from these states were seen to shift to steadily higher energies as the impact energy was lowered to within a few electron volts above threshold. This phenomenon is compared with a similar one which has been observed in the scattering of low energy helium ions from helium atoms. A qualitative explanation of these observations can be provided by considering a “post-collision interaction” between the scattered particle and the ejected electron. The limitations of this model are discussed. Structure in the spectra suggest that the situation is complicated by an interference phenomenon which cannot be explained in a classical treatment of the problem. The threshold electron excitation spectrum of these autoionizing levels has also been obtained, using an apparatus designed to detect very low energy electrons. As well as confirming the observations described above, this revealed the presence of one of the two negative ion states known to exist in this region. In an effort to obtain a complete picture of the processes taking place in helium at these energies, the negative ion states were also studied in direct ionization and in elastic scattering at various angles. The latter measurements confirmed the classifications of these states as (2s 2 2p) 2 P and (2s2p 2 ) 2 D, and we have obtained values for their energies of 57.22 ± 0.04 eV and 58.30 ± 0.04 eV respectively.