THE LOCALIZATION OF 3D HOLE STATES IN FE AND FEAL STUDIED BY AUGER VACANCY SATELLITE SPECTROSCOPY

For Ni, Cu and Zn the occurrence of the L2L3M4,5 Coster-Kronig transitions give rise to L3M4,5-M4,5M4,5 Auger vacancy satellite transitions to low kinetic energy of the main L3M4,5M4,5 transitions. In pure Fe the intensity of the Auger vacancy satellites are negligibly small even though L2L3M4,5 Coster-Kronig occur, a fact which has been attributed to the delocalisation of the M4,5 (3d) hole state within the lifetime of the L3 hole. In this work we present Auger spectra for Fe and FeAl excited using radiation obtained on station 5U.1 of the Daresbury synchrotron. Our spectra support earlier work regarding the relative lifetime of the L3 and M4,5 hole state in Fe though our spectra are different in detail. We also show that the Fe 3d hole is significantly more localised in FeAl than in Fe.