High-energy electron-helium scattering in a Nd:YAG laser field

We report measurements of the scattering of electrons by helium atoms in the presence of 1.17 eV photons from a Nd:YAG laser. The incident energy of the electrons was in the range 50-350 eV, and the polarization of the laser was arranged to be parallel to electrons scattered through 135 deg. Energy-shifted peaks corresponding both to one- and two-photon emission were observed. Calculations using the Kroll-Watson approximation are perfectly consistent with the data.