On spin polarisation of Auger electrons

Conditions for occurrence of spin polarisation of Auger electrons have been analysed. It is shown that if an inner-shell vacancy arising from particle impact is aligned then the Auger electrons can have spin polarisation transverse to the scattering plane. The expressions for the degree of polarisation as a function of the angle of detection of Auger electrons have been obtained. Using the LS coupling approximation it is shown that a significant spin polarisation may be expected for the Auger lines corresponding to the triplet terms of the residual ion if individual components of the fine-structure multiplet are separated out. After the summation over the multiplet the polarisation disappears.