Low Energy Auger Emission from Lithium Fluoride

Several low energy Auger transitions have been detected in lithium fluoride. These all have energies below 50 eV and cannot be indexed in terms of transitions involving the electronic levels of fluorine ions alone. A model is proposed to explain the experimental results in terms of an ionisation of a lithium 1s level giving rise to Auger emission involving one or two neighbouring fluorine ions. This leads to two groups of Auger lines with energies in broad agreement with some of the observed lines. However, the higher energy transitions may be characteristic of colour centre states produced by surface damage.