Theory of Auger relaxation energies in metals

Abstract

A theory of the Auger parameter is introduced and used to interpret measurements on the 3d transition metals. This parameter is the combination of an Auger energy and related core-level binding energies which formally eliminates the contributions of chemical shifts and reference levels, permitting the unambiguous extraction of a relaxation energy from measured quantities. The value of is the result of two competing effects which cancel approximately in some cases, but not in others. This leads to an interesting variation of with atomic number. Our parameter-free calculations describe both the magnitude of this quantity and its strong increase at the end of the transition series, where the character of the screening charge changes from d-like to s-like. © 1979 The American Physical Society.