AUGER NEUTRALIZATION AND DEEXCITATION OF HELIUM AT AN ALUMINUM SURFACE - A UNIFIED TREATMENT

The neutralization rate of He+ and the de-excitation rates of excited He atoms in front of an Al surface are computed. This is achieved by e valuating the transition of electronic eigenstates of the He+-Al syste m to the He+ core hole while producing surface excitations. These surf ace excitations are computed in a self-consistent way. The present wor k accounts for the full many-body excitation of the metal surface as w ell as the hybridization of the He-Al orbitals, This hybridization lea ds to a new qualitative picture of the Auger processes in which the ne utralization and de-excitation processes are mixed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.