Experimental and theoretical study of CVV Auger peaks of selected aluminium and carbon compounds

The Auger valence peak of Al 2 O 3 , Al and carbon compounds (graphite, fullerene, carbides) has been studied experimentally and theoretically. It is demonstrated, from a comparison of the experimental spectrum with the self‐convolution of the valence band, that the Al CVV transition in Al 2 O 3 is an intra‐atomic transition. The behaviour of the C KVV Auger peak is shown to be intermediate between atomic and band‐like transitions. The different experimental carbide peaks could be reconstructed by a self‐convolution of the valence band and the introduction of a hole–hole repulsion term extracted from the Cini–Sawatzki equation. A non‐expected behaviour of the satellite peak at 280 eV for tungsten and chromium carbide is shown and interpreted, with a comparison with the Ramaker approach. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.