The Auger effect (/oʊˈʒeɪ/; French pronunciation:[ˈ/o.ʒe/]) or Auger−Meitner effect is a physical phenomenon in which the filling of an inner-shell vacancy of an atom is accompanied by the emission of an electron from the same atom.[1] When a core electron is removed, leaving a vacancy, an electron from a higher energy level may fall into the vacancy, resulting in a release of energy. For light atoms (Z<12), this energy is most often transferred to a valence electron which is subsequently ejected from the atom.[2] This second ejected electron is called an Auger electron.[3] For heavier atomic nuclei, the release of the energy in the form of an emitted photon becomes gradually more probable.
Effect
Upon ejection, the kinetic energy of the Auger electron corresponds to the difference between the energy of the initial electronic transition into the vacancy and the ionization energy for the electron shell from which the Auger electron was ejected. These energy levels depend on the type of atom and the chemical environment in which the atom was located.
Auger electron spectroscopy involves the emission of Auger electrons by bombarding a sample with either X-rays or energetic electrons and measures the intensity of Auger electrons that result as a function of the Auger electron energy. The resulting spectra can be used to determine the identity of the emitting atoms and some information about their environment.
The Auger effect can impact biological molecules such as DNA. Following the K-shell ionization of the component atoms of DNA, Auger electrons are ejected leading to damage of its sugar-phosphate backbone.[4]
Discovery
The Auger emission process was observed and published in 1922 by Lise Meitner,[5] an Austrian-Swedish physicist, as a side effect in her competitive search for the nuclear beta electrons with the British physicist Charles Drummond Ellis.
The French physicist Pierre Victor Auger independently discovered it in 1923[6] upon analysis of a Wilson cloud chamber experiment and it became the central part of his PhD work.[7] High-energy X-rays were applied to ionize gas particles and observe photoelectric electrons. The observation of electron tracks that were independent of the frequency of the incident photon suggested a mechanism for electron ionization that was caused from an internal conversion of energy from a radiationless transition. Further investigation, and theoretical work using elementary quantum mechanics and transition rate/transition probability calculations, showed that the effect was a radiationless effect more than an internal conversion effect.[8][9]
Auger Auger effect Earth auger Auger electron spectroscopy Brian Auger Pierre Auger Observatory Félix Auger-Aliassime Brian Auger and the Trinity Langdon Auger Stéphane Auger Auger therapy Albert Auger John Auger Wood auger Arleen Auger Edmond Auger Pierre Auger Louis-Mathias Auger Pierre-Michel Auger Lake Auger Old Forest Georges-Adélard Auger Continuous flight augering Auger cone Auger de Balben Raoul Auger Feuillet Henry Lemaître Auger Tractor PTO auger Gerald Auger Plumber's snake Tommy Auger Auger (surname) Tito Auger Claudine Auger Justin Auger Ryan Auger Isabelle Auger Guillaume Aug…
er Claude Auger Charles Auger Pierre Victor Auger Malika Auger-Aliassime Auger de Moléon de Granier Auger architectomics Screw conveyor Hippolyte Auger Anne Auger Michel Auger Auger-Aliassime Michel Auger (politician) Auger Ferrier Joseph-Oscar Auger Ludovic Auger Louis-Simon Auger Auger-Saint-Vincent Athanase Auger Michel C. Auger Pierre Auger (biologist) Félix Auger-Aliassime career statistics Augères Terebridae Augièr Galhard Access All Areas (Eric Burdon & Brian Auger Band album) Radiative Auger effect Neoterebra vinosa Chaser bin Keble Hills Antoine-Augustin Auger Hastula solida Buffet family Duplicaria dussumierii Neoterebra dislocata Terestrombus terebellatus Oxymeris albida Killing of Melanie Carpenter Terebra amanda Bostrichidae Genevieve (actress) Oxymeris senegalensis Punctoterebra swainsoni Hastula lanceata Oxymeris chlorata Punctoterebra plumbea Hastula albula Oxymeris felina Mazatlania cosentini Drilling rig Carrier generation and recombination Heterobostrychus aequalis John Dixon (English sportsman) Augers-en-Brie Drill bit Deep foundation Cosmic ray Being Black in Halifax Gap of Dunloe Jackal buzzard John Augur Holabird Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq List of One Piec