Correlation between the relaxation energy shift and the hole-lifetime width

Abstract

By analyzing the residual energy shift between the experimental atomic core-hole energy and the relativistic atomic ΔSCF hole energy of atomic Zn, Kr, Cd, Xe and Hg, we examined whether within any principal shell there is any simple correlation between the relaxation energy shift and the lifetime width of the core hole. We studied the core hole in the same principal atomic shell so that the relaxation energy shift and the lifetime width are governed by the super Coster–Kronig transition, in which the occupied orbitals of the same principal quantum number are involved. Within any principal shell there is no simple correlation between the relaxation energy shift and the lifetime width. The large correlation coefficient found in the case of the N shell of Hg atom by McGilp and Weightman [J. Phys. B13 (1980) 1953] is fortuitous.