Auger emission from solid surfaces bombarded with ions

The Auger electron emission from Be, Na, Mg, Al and Si bombarded with 0,5-20 KeV noble gas ions is studied. Sharp structures of the Auger electron spectra of Na and Be were identified. A Monte Carlo program was adapted to simulate the colision cascade in the solid, inner shell excitations and Auger decays. From the comparision of experimental and simulated Auger intensities, the relative role of symmetric and asymmetric collisions in Be K- and Al L-shell excitation were evaluated. In the case of Be, the discussion of the exciting processes to higher projectile energies was extended. To this end, the simulation to early measurements of Be K X-ray yields was applied. From this analysis, information about the variations of the fluorescence yield and outer-shell occupation numbers of Be with projectile energy was obtained. The study of the shape of the sharp Auger structures and their dependence with the energy and incidence projectile angle gives information about the collisional processes, inner hole lifetimes and Auger decays. From the evaluation of the energy and angular distribution of the excited sputtered atoms and the interaction between them and the metallic-surface, the energy shift distributions in the Auger energies were obtained. From the comparison of these distributions with the experimental atomic peaks, the main causes of the broadening of these peaks were determined. (M.E.L.)