ANGULAR-DISTRIBUTION OF AUTOIONIZATION AND AUGER ELECTRONS EJECTED BYELECTRON-IMPACT FROM LASER-EXCITED AND POLARIZED ATOMS

A general formalism is developed for a description of the angular dist ribution of electrons ejected after the electron-impact excitation/ion ization of the laser-excited and polarized atoms. Properties of the an gular distributions are analysed in a general case as well as in some particular geometries of the experiment. Within the two-step approxima tion the formalism is applied to the resonant single and double ioniza tion with ejection of autoionization and Auger electrons. As an exampl e the angular distributions of autoionization electrons from laser-exc ited sodium atoms are calculated in the plane-wave and distorted-wave Born approximations. Angular correlations between autoionization and s cattered electrons, which can be measured in a coincidence (e, 2e) exp eriment with polarized targets, are also analysed.