IONIZATION PROCESSES IN COLLISIONS OF OPEN-SHELL ATOMS .1. FLUORINE ATOM COLLISIONS WITH INERT-GASES AND MOLECULES

Results of an electron spectroscopy study of ionisation processes in collisions of F atoms with He, Ne, O2and CO2at low keV energies are presented. It is shown that in case of the He and Ne targets ionisation is partly due to population of singly-excited autoionising states of the 1D nl series and partly due to another mechanism which results in the production of a continuous electron energy distribution and becomes particularly important at high energies. A discussion in terms of the molecular orbital model is presented and indicates that quasimolecular Auger ionisation must be the other F+production channel. In the case of molecular targets the authors observe a direct ionisation channel and also dissociative ionisation via the population of 2D nl autoionising states of fragment O atoms. © 1990 IOP Publishing Ltd.