Investigation of the (e, 2e) single ionization of He and Ar at large energy loss close to minimum momentum transfer

We report new coplanar (e, 2e) measurements for ionization of He and Ar under kinematics characterized by large energy transfer and close to minimum momentum transfer from the projectile to the target. These kinematics have remained rather unexplored to date due to the smallness of the corresponding cross sections. They could be investigated here thanks to the high sensitivity of our multi-collection spectrometer. The experimental results are used as a sensitive test of state-of-the-art available theoretical models for multi-electron atoms, namely the BBK and a hybrid DWBA+R-matrix (close coupling) models. An overall satisfactory agreement with experiment is obtained for the hybrid DWBA results for both targets. However, a close inspection of the remaining discrepancies calls for further refinement of the theory.