Search for short-time phase effects in the electronic damage evolution - A case study with silicon

This work focusses on the production and decay properties of inner-shell vacancies and valence-band excitations induced by swift highly charged ions interacting with amorphous and crystalline Si. High resolution electron spectra have been taken for fast heavy ions at 1.78-5 MeV/u as well as for electrons of similar velocity incident on atomically clean Si targets of well defined phase. Various Auger-electron structures are analyzed concerning their width, their intensity and exact peak position. All measured peaks show a small shift towards lower energy when the charge of the projectile is increased. This finding is an indication for a nuclear-track potential inside the ion track. A detailed analysis of the Auger-electron spectra for amorphous Si and crystalline Si(1 1 1) 7 × 7 points to a small but significant phase effect in the short-time dynamics of ion tracks.