Kinematically complete experiments for positron-impact ionization of helium atoms at the NEPOMUC facility

Abstract

Positron impact ionization of helium is studied with fully resolved momentum vectors of all continuum particles. An imaging multi-particle momentum spectrometer (reaction microscope) detecting all final state particles over the full solid angle was applied. This apparatus was connected to the NEPOMUC facility delivering intense positron beams tuneable over a large energy range with good beam quality. At 80 eV impact energy about 5000 triple coincidence events were collected. Cross sections as function of the longitudinal particle momentum show strong differences compared to respective electron impact ionization data most likely originating from the reversed post collision interaction in both cases. Calculations using the 3 Coulomb wavefunction method show clear discrepancies from the experimental results.