The Auger satellite and other characteristic events in Mg secondary electron spectra

Abstract

Peaks in the very low energy, “true secondary”, portions of Mg secondary electron spectra are correlated with characteristic processes such as plasmon decay, etc. The satellite peak at an energy slightly greater than the main peak in the Auger spectrum is shown not to be due solely to double ionization in the L 23 level, and it is suggested that perhaps both plasmon absorption and double ionization processes contribute to the formation of the satellite peak. It is shown that it is not necessary to apply correction factors to values for ground state electron shell binding energies in free-electron-gas-like solids to achieve agreement between estimated and observed values of kinetic energies of Auger electrons ejected from valence bands.