We present a study of the production of neon autoionizing states during gla
ncing scattering of 3-50 keV Ne+ on an Al(111) surface of varying degree of
roughness. The projectile energy dependence of the intensity of neon autoi
onization peaks in the electron spectra indicates that the various autoioni
zing states fall into two main groups. At low keV energies, Ne(2p(4)3s(2))
autoionizing states are formed, while at higher energies other peaks appear
in the electron spectra with similar intensity. Some of these peaks may be
due to low-lying 2p(4)nln'l' states, whose population is aided by the moti
on of the projectile. Other peaks can be assigned to 2s2p(5)nl, 2s2p(6)nl a
nd 2p(3)nln'l' states. A study of the effect of surface roughness shows tha
t the production of excited states in grazing scattering is favored at roug
her surfaces. For flat surfaces the peaks become broader and less intense,
an effect that we ascribe to autoionization decay closer to the surface, ba
sed on previous numerical simulations of peak shapes. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sci
ence B.V. All rights reserved.