Three-electron auger process from beam-foil excited multiply charged ions

Electron emission from collisions of C3+ ions (22.7 A MeV) with carbon foils (21, 49 and 90 microg/cm(2)) was studied by the time-of-flight method. Two prominent emission patterns can be readily identified as "binary encounter" electrons and "cusp" electrons. With the thinnest target only, a third structure is visible at slightly lower time-of-flight (thus slightly higher energy) than the cusp electrons. The energy of these electrons would correspond to 647(+116)/(-104) eV if they were emitted from the projectile frame of reference. A possible explanation is a rare three-electron-Auger K(2)L(2)L(1) process.