Interpretation of the N2,3N4,5O2,3 Coster-Kronig spectrum of xenon

The N2,3N4,5O2,3 Coster-Kronig spectrum of Xe has been measured with synchrotron radiation. It arises from the decay of the 4p core hole states that are split by strong configuration interaction to numerous close-lying components. Their binding energies are obtained from a high-resolution 4p photoelectron measurement. The interpretation of the Coster-Kronig spectrum is further hampered by the lack of accurate binding energies for the 4d-15p-1 final states. The latter are, however, also reached in the M4,5N4,5O2,3 Auger spectrum which has been measured in this work with electron impact ionization and assigned with the aid of calculations. With this new information the N2,3N4,5O2,3 Coster-Kronig spectrum can be interpreted semi-empirically. It is also compared with calculations.