Multicoincidence Investigation of Ionization Dynamics

Electron-electron coincidence techniques have been applied to the investigation of the Xe 4d excitation and ionization by electron impact and its decay via Auger processes. A versatile coincidence spectrometer enables the simultaneous study of the creation and decay of the inner vacancy in several kinematical conditions. The role played by a resonant channel in competition with the direct ionization and the interchannel coupling between the 4d and the outer shells have been investigated by (e,2e) experiments. The effects of final state interactions have been studied from the Xe N5 threshold up to about 20 eV above it by (e, e'Auger) experiments.