Rostock 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm
Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe
MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik
MO 20: Atomic Physics, Molecular Physics, and Quantum Optics with X-ray FELs (joint session MO/A)
MO 20.8: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 14. März 2019, 12:15–12:30, S HS 002 Biologie
The Auger effect in dispersing and absorbing environments — •Janine Franz1, Stefan Yoshi Buhmann1,2, and Robert Bennett1,2 — 1Institute of Physics, University of Freiburg, Germany — 2Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), Germany
The Auger effect is the radiationless decay of an inner-shell ionised atom. In this process, the atom relaxes by filling the inner vacancy with an outer shell electron, but instead of releasing the excess energy in form of a photon (spontaneous decay) the energy is reabsorbed by another electron belonging to the same atom. This effect finds many applications: for example in Auger electron spectroscopy, it is used to study material properties of surfaces.
It is well established that dielectric environments can have a significant impact on spontaneous decay (Purcell effect) [1] as well as interatomic energy transfer rates [2]. We present a general expression for the intra-atomic Auger process in the presence of dielectric environments that can be used both as a new starting point for ab initio quantum chemistry, or within the quantum-optical formalism of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics in order to circumvent complex numerics. Within our description, the decay rate can be given in analytical form for some simple environments. We compare Auger decay with a competing process known as interatomic Coulombic decay, focussing on their behaviour in the presence of surfaces.
[1] E. M. Purcell, Proc. Am. Phys. Soc. 69, 674 (1946).
[2] J. L. Hemmerich, R. Bennett and S. Y. Buhmann, Nature Commun. 9, 2934 (2018).