Electron collisions with laser cooled and trapped metastable helium atoms: total scattering cross sections

Abstract

Absolute measurements of total scattering cross sections for low energy (5–70 eV) electrons by metastable helium (23S) atoms are presented. The measurements are performed using a magneto-optical trap which is loaded from a laser-cooled, bright beam of slow He(23S) atoms. The data are compared with predictions from convergent close coupling and R matrix with pseudostate calculations, and we find good agreement between experiment and theory.