Solid state effects in the M4,5N4,5N4,5 Auger electron spectrum of cadmium

Abstract

High resolution M 4,5 N 4,5 N 4,5 Auger electron spectra have been measured from cadmium vapour and from solid cadmium by using electron impact excitation. In order to observe solid state effects in the Auger spectrum in detail and to minimize the contribution of instrumental differences the measurements on the two phases were made with the same spectrometer. Decomposition of the line groups into individual lines gave the natural line widths (FWHM) 0.32 ± 0.05 and 0.79 ± 0.08 eV for free cadmium atoms and for solid cadmium, respectively. The energy shift of the line components on going from vapour to solid was found to be 12.2 ± 0.5 eV. The vapour—metal Auger energy shift has been calculated for an extra-atomic relaxation model. The calculated result agrees well with the observations. The solid state broadening of the lines seems to be related to the width of the range of the final state energies in the metal.