Desorption of H ions from water chemisorbed on Si(100) by O 1s excitation - an Auger electron-photoion coincidence spectroscopy study

Auger electron-photoion coincidence (AEPICO) spectroscopy, which has been recently developed and proved to be a very powerful technique for investigating the dynamics of desorption induced by the core-level excitation, is applied to the investigation of Auger-stimulated ion desorption from the chemisorbed-water-Si(100) surface induced by O 1s excitation. It is shown that the fast relaxation of the excited state with a core hole and an excited electron takes place before the core hole decay, and that the desorption yield is enhanced by the shake-up (and/or shake-off) excitation. The relative cross-section for Auger-stimulated ion desorption is estimated, and is shown to increase as holes are created at deeper levels of the valence bands as the final state of the Auger decay. A comparison is also made with condensed H₂O.