Hollow-atom-hollow-ion decay routes of triply excited lithium: first Auger results and a comparison with R-matrix calculations

We present the first photoelectron results for hollow-atom-hollow-ion decay paths of triply excited lithium, in which the hollow lithium atoms Li(nln'l'n''l'') decay via,hollow Li+(nln'l') and then to Li2+ ions. The high-resolution data, obtained at the 9.01 beamline of the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley, provide considerable insight into the decay pattern of the various hollow lithium resonances. Tracking the secondary Li+ Auger decays as functions of the incident photon energy provides new data on triply excited resonances. The results compare favourably with recent advanced R-matrix calculations. Detection of the individual Li+ Auger decay lines also provides information on the energies and widths of a number of doubly excited levels of the ion.