Three-Electron Auger Process from Beam-Foil Excited Multiply Charged Ions
Résumé
Electron emission from collisions of C3+ ions (22.7 AMeV) with carbon foils (21, 49 and 90 μg/cm2) was studied by the time-of-flight method. Two prominent emission patterns can be readily identified as ‘‘binary encounter'' electrons and ‘‘cusp'' electrons. With the thinnest target only, a third structure is visible at slightly lower time-of-flight (thus slightly higher energy) than the cusp electrons. The energy of these electrons would correspond to 647+116-104 eV if they were emitted from the projectile frame of reference. A possible explanation is a rare three-electron-Auger K2L2L1 process.