INNER-SHELL ELECTRON PROMOTION IN LOW-ENERGY LI-AL(100) COLLISIONS()

A previously unobserved inelastic excitation mechanism is reported for alkali ions scattered from a metal surface. Li 1s holes are generated via electron Promotion during hard binary collisions with surface Al atoms. Excited Li then resonantly neutralizes to form Li(1s 2s2). The se particles autoionize above the surface and are thus detected as ion s. At large scattering angles, the majority of the singly scattered Li + ions participate in this promotion process for incident energies of approximately 3 keV and higher.