The role of final-state correlation in single ionization of helium

Ionization of atomic helium by a fully stripped heavy-particle projectile nucleus is considered. The importance of electron correlation in the final-state bound - continuum wavefunction of this two-electron system is examined. We obtain an approximate solution of the two-electron Schrodinger 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 continuum - continuum) of this two-electron system. We then introduce an effective charge which we show greatly improves this description. We apply the wavefunctions derived to evaluate total and singly differential cross sections for single ionization of helium by various differently charged projectiles. Finally, we compare results with experiment.