Angle-resolved resonant photoemission at the M III absorption threshold of Co and Fe metal

Abstract

We report on an angle-resolved resonant photoemission study of Co and Fe metal at the MIII absorption threshold. The intensity of the various spectral components was measured as a function of the electron emission angle relative to the E vector of the incident light. On MIII resonance, the main valence-band photoemission (PE) intensity of Co and Fe metal, located between EF and 3 eV, follows a cos2u behavior, as is expected for a photoemission process. However, the intensity of the enhanced feature located at '5 eV is found to be almost independent of the emission angle, as expected for an incoherent Auger process. This clearly shows that the enhancement of the 5 eV PE signal is mainly caused by an incoherent Auger decay and not by a resonant PE process.