Effect of Relativistic Many-Electron Interactions on Photoelectron Partial Wave Probabilities

We obtain relative cross sections for the production of photoelectrons with specific angular momentum quantum numbers. These cross sections are obtained from the polarization analysis of the visible fluorescence of ions produced when circularly polarized vacuum ultraviolet radiation photoionizes ground state Ar. The ratio of cross sections for the production of photoelectrons with the same orbital angular momentum but different total angular momenta shows strong deviations from the statistical ratio, demonstrating the importance of relativistic interactions in many-electron photoionization dynamics.