HOLLOW-ATOM-HOLLOW-ION DECAY ROUTES OF TRIPLY EXCITED LITHIUM - FIRSTAUGER RESULTS AND A COMPARISON WITH R-MATRIX CALCULATIONS

We present the first photoelectron results for hollow-atom-hollow-ion decay paths of triply excited lithium, in which the hollow lithium ato ms Li(nln'l'n''l'') decay via,hollow Li+(nln'l') and then to Li2+ ions . The high-resolution data, obtained at the 9.01 beamline of the Advan ced Light Source at Berkeley, provide considerable insight into the de cay pattern of the various hollow lithium resonances. Tracking the sec ondary Li+ Auger decays as functions of the incident photon energy pro vides new data on triply excited resonances. The results compare favou rably with recent advanced R-matrix calculations. Detection of the ind ividual Li+ Auger decay lines also provides information on the energie s and widths of a number of doubly excited levels of the ion.