Electronic excitations produced by deep-level promotion during atomic collisions in solids

Expressions have been derived for electron-energy distributions of electrons excited in solids by one-electron core-level promotion processes during low-energy ion bombardment. Excitation occurs either due to the well-known autoionization of a promoted level or due to the excitation of electrons from occupied conduction-band states by a process indirectly mediated by core-level promotion. These expressions have been applied to evaluate electron-energy spectra of bombarded Al metal. As an example, two Al atoms in Al metal that collide with a kinetic energy of 1000 eV give rise to a one-electron energy spectrum which extends beyond the 2p Auger peak energy ({ε}{}54 eV) and which can be described approximately by an exponential dependence exp(-{ε}/10).