Threshold behavior of the Cu L3M4,5M4,5 Auger effect of Cu metal at the L3 edge -: art. no. 115101

The Cu L3M4,5M4,5 Auger effect from Cu metal resulting from photoexcitation across the Cu L-3 edge has been investigated. We observe that (a) the resonant Auger features (lack of satellites below the (1)G line and narrower linewidths) are noticeably different from those of normal Auger excited with photon energy far above the threshold. (b) the Auger patterns exhibit a dispersion associated with varying excitation photon energy slightly below the threshold, in accordance with the resonant Raman effect, and (c) on the lower kinetic-energy side of the (1)G line there exists a shoulder not predicted by atomic theory this feature skews the (1)G line and is attributed to density-of-state effects. This threshold behavior and its implications are discussed in terms of multielectron processes, resonant x-ray Raman scattering, and sublifetime x-ray-absorption near-edge structure measurements using a partial Auger yield.