FORMATION AND DECAY OF XE 4D(-1) VACANCIES STUDIED VIA ELECTRON-ELECTRON COINCIDENCE EXPERIMENTS

A versatile electron-impact spectrometer, equipped with three independ ent electrostatic analyzers, has allowed the simultaneous investigatio n of the excitation and ionization and Auger decay of the Xe 4d states via electron-electron coincidence experiments. Energy and angular dep endence of the final-state continuum interactions, the postcollision i nteractions, has been studied in both the (e,e' Auger) and (e,2e) bind ing energy spectra up to 30 eV above the 4d thresholds. The experiment al results have been compared with the theoretical predictions of Kuch iev and Sheinerma (Usp. Fiz. Nauk 158, 353 (1989) [Sov. Phys. Ups. 32. 569 (1989)]). A fairly good agreement between the experiments and the ory has been found in all the studied cases. Also the decay of the Xe 4d(-1)np inner-shell excited states and the energy dependence of the 4 d(5/2):4d(3/2) branching ratios have been studied and compared with an alogous data from photoionization experiments.