Auger effect
Noun
Meaning
Auger effect
The secondary emission of an electron following the ionisation of a core electron of an atom.
Examples
The Auger effect was discovered independently by both Lise Meitner and Pierre Auger in the 1920s.
Since the Auger effect is not the only mechanism available for atomic relaxation, there is a competition between radiative and non-radiative decay processes to be the primary de-excitation pathway.
However, if the lower state is in an inner shell, a phenomenon known as the Auger effect may take place where the energy is transferred to another bound electrons causing it to go into the continuum.
The Auger effect allows one to multiply ionize an atom with a single photon.