Influence of the promotion of terms on the emission of auger electrons upon collisions of multicharged ions with a metal surface

Abstract

Upon the collision of multicharged ions with a metal surface there occurs the formation of a dipole, generated from an ion and an induced charge in the metal. Strong rearrangement of electron shells takes place in the dipole field, which leads to the “promotion” of terms generated from states with a principal quantum number n = 2, 3. When the promoted terms cross with the levels of metal atoms, an electron is captured into these states. This effect makes it possible to explain the observed Auger electron spectra.