Surface effects on energies of Auger electrons from Xe(111)

Abstract

The $\mathrm{Xe}{N}_{4,5}{O}_{2,3}{O}_{2,3}$ Auger spectrum of a Xe crystal grown on Pd(111) is found to consist of two atomiclike subspectra from surface and bulk Xe atoms, respectively, separated by ${\Delta }^A=0.79\mathrm{}\pm 0.05$ eV. This surface Auger-electron shift is three times as large as the simultaneously studied surface shift of the Xe $4d$ core-level photoemisson lines. We explain these surface shifts in terms of a reduced dielectric screening of the positive hole states in surface atoms as compared with the bulk.