Electron emission following the interaction of slow highly charged ions with solids

The interaction of highly-charged ions with surfaces involves many excitation processes of the surface atoms and the bulk material. One such process, the emission of electrons from surfaces due to the potential energy of the incident ions has been studied. The experimental results presented here confirm that the majority of electrons emitted as a result of highly-charged ions interacting with a solid surface have energies of about 20 eV. Auger processes contribute a smaller fraction of the total emitted electrons with increasing Z of the projectile. This contribution to the total electron emission yield is found to be less than 5% for Ne{dollar}sp{lcub}9+{rcub}{dollar} and less than 1% for Ar{dollar}sp{lcub}18+{rcub}.{dollar} For Z {dollar}ge{dollar} 54, no Auger electrons were detected. The early indications that the total number of emitted low energy electrons increases linearly with charge have been demonstrated not to hold for q {dollar}ge{dollar} 18.