Separation and solid angle correction of the metastable 1s2s2p ⁴P Auger yield produced in ion-atom collisions using the biased gas cell technique: A tool for the determination of the population mechanisms

We demonstrate an experimental approach to the solid angle correction needed for the metastable 1s2s2p ⁴P state obtained in ion-atom collisions with gaseous targets. By applying a small bias voltage V_GC on the target gas cell, the ⁴P contributions are separated into two peaks one arising from inside (which is shifted by e V_GC) and the other outside the gas cell which is unshifted. Using SIMION we compute the correction in each case and perform a consistency check on our approach. (paper)