The decay of autoionizing states in electric field formed during collisions of multiply charged ions with metal surface

When a multicharged ion approaches the metal surface, a strong electric field occurs due to interaction between the ion and the charge induced in the metal. During ion-surface scattering, double excited autoionizing states can be formed, and their decay occurs in the presence of strong electric field. The Auger transition rates for such states are higher than those in the absence of the electric field; this is connected with the increase in the wave functions overlap and also with mixing of states with different orbital momentums. This effect changes our view on the population scheme of states with the lowest principal quantum numbers for the collisions considered.