THE ROLE OF FINAL-STATE CORRELATION IN SINGLE IONIZATION OF HELIUM

Ionization of atomic helium by a fully stripped heavy-particle project ile nucleus is considered. The importance of electron correlation in t he final-state bound-continuum wavefunction of this two-electron syste m is examined. We obtain an approximate solution of the two-electron S chrodinger equation for this particular configuration. The method used is a variational-perturbative technique, which is extensively used in approaches to the alternative distinct transitions (bound-bound and c ontinuum-continuum) of this two-electron system. We then introduce an effective charge which we show greatly improves this description. We a pply the wavefunctions derived to evaluate total and singly differenti al cross sections for single ionization of helium by various different ly charged projectiles. Finally, we compare results with experiment.