Deep-hole interferences in photon-induced Auger emission from solids

Abstract

A complete formalism for the description of photon-induced Auger emission is set up, which includes explicitly the process of creation of the deep hole. It is shown that the phase coherence between the holes may induce contributions to the Auger current due to interferences between Auger processes involving the different degenerate deep hole states. It is shown that one must distinguish two types of interferences: intra-atomic ones, between degenerate hole states on the same atomic site, which are practically not affected by lifetime effects; extra-atomic ones, which only occur if at least one of the intermediate states of the Auger process belongs to a wide band. Their space range is limited, by lifetime and mean-free-path effects, to a few atomic distances in light materials. Differences between photon- and electron-induced Auger emission and possible experimental checks of interference effects are discussed qualitatively.