Post-collision interaction in inner-shell ionisation of ArL 3 by electron impact

The shifts and shapes of ArL ₃ Auger lines due to the post-collision interaction (PCI) in the inner-shell ionisation of theL ₃-shell of argon by electron impact have been measured for the range of excess energiesE ₁=10 to 1,500 eV. The experimental shifts {ie67-01} could be fitted by a relation {ie67-02} withc=(5.3±0.4) andn= (?0.45±0.04) whereГ(ArL ₃)=130 meV is the ArL ₃-level width. In a classical model the PCI shifts have been calculated for two limiting cases:a) whereE ₁ is large enough (E ₁>50 eV) for the motion of the two slow electrons to be treated as uncorrelated, andb) forE ₁→0. The calculated shifts forE ₁=250, 750 and 1,750 eV are in good agreement with the experimental results. Also the calculated PCI distorted shapes of Auger lines for differentE ₁ agree reasonably with the experimental Auger line shapes.