Exchange interference in the angular correlation between magnesium photo- and Coster-Kronig electrons

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Abstract
For the well defined process of 2s photoionization in atomic magnesium with subsequent L1-L2,3M1 1P or 3P Coster-Kronig decay, exchange interference effects are studied for coincident two-electron emission. Both electrons are observed for back-to-back emission in a plane perpendicular to the photon-beam direction, changing the photon energy so that the photoelectron line is moved, from below to above, through the state-selected Coster-Kronig line. The coincidence signal of the singlet Coster-Kronig channel shows the expected constructive interference effect leading to an increase by a factor of 4. However, in the coincidence signal of the triplet Coster-Kronig channel the expected destructive interference appears to be hidden due to (1P1-3P1) spin-orbit induced J-mixing. Implementing this complication into the theory which includes electron exchange and the influence of post-collision interaction, very good agreement is achieved between theoretical and experimental data. This gives quantitative confirmation of the selected process of sequential two-electron emission described in a one-step formulation.
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