Low-energy electron-helium scattering in a Nd–YAG laser field

•Laser assisted electron helium excitation is studied at low incident energies.•The inclusion of the second-order Born contributions is significant at low incident energies.•The target distortion induced by the laser field should be taken into account.•The effect of the second term of the Born series is reduced as the energy increases. We study the electron-impact excitation of atomic helium, in the presence of a linearly polarized Nd–YAG laser field, accompanied by the transfer of ℓ photons, for low collision energy of 25eV and laser intensity of 5.3×1011Wcm−2. The second-order Born approximation has been used to calculate the differential cross sections. Detailed calculations of the scattering amplitudes are performed by using the Sturmian basis expansion. A detailed analysis is made of the excitation of the 11S→21S and 11S→21P transitions. We discuss the behavior and the variation of the cross sections corresponding to the excitation process for various geometrical configurations.