Deexcitation of hollow atoms: autoionization of multiply excited N, O and Ne atoms at a Pt(110) surface

Abstract

The K-Auger electron emission during the interaction of 60 keV N 6+, 70 keV O 7+ and 90 keV Ne 9+ with a Pt(110) surface occurs below the target surface for glancing angles in the range 10–90°. Therefore the projectile K-Auger electron spectra are distorted by solid state effects. These effects can be removed from the measured spectra by using a procedure originally developped for photoelectron spectroscopy. The resulting primary excitation spectra are compared with results of atomic structure calculations. The analysis reveals that at the instant of K-Auger electron emission on the average five electrons are present in the L-shells of the hydrogen-like N, O and Ne projectiles. Furthermore the ratio of the KLL- and KLM-Auger electron emission yields is determined. It is 3.4, 3.7 and 4.6 in case of the N 6+, O 7+ and Ne 9+ projectile, respectively.