Eur. Phys. J. D (2014) 68: 214
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2014-50124-5

Regular Article

Auger decay and the direct double ionization probability of a 2p inner-shell hole in a singly charged Ar⁺ ion

Department of Physics, College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha Hunan 410073, P.R. China

^a e-mail: jlzeng@nudt.edu.cn

Received: 17 February 2014
Received in final form: 13 April 2014
Published online: 7 August 2014

Abstract

Single and double Auger decay processes of Ar⁺ 2p⁻¹ hole levels belonging to the configurations of 2p⁵3s²3p⁵ and 2p⁵3s3p⁶ are investigated in the framework of perturbation theory implemented by the distorted wave approximation. The single Auger decay channels and rates are determined and the predicted total rates can differ by more than an order of magnitude for the levels of 2p⁵3s²3p⁵, yet they are very close for levels belonging to 2p⁵3s3p⁶. By combining the double photoionization cross sections of the neutral species, our theoretical Auger spectra of the single Auger decay process nicely interpreted a recent experiment [S.M. Huttula et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 113002 (2013)]. A configuration averaged branching ratio of 6.5% and 7.3% are predicted for the direct double Auger decay to the total probability for 2p⁵3s²3p⁵ and 2p⁵3s3p⁶, respectively, which is smaller than that of Ar 2p⁻¹ hole states.