New determination of the core-level life-time broadenings in mercury

•We report core-level life-time widths for mercury in the gas phase.•Photoelectron spectra for the 4p, 4d, 4f and 5p levels are analyzed.•A Coster-Kronig like CI effect is observed for the 4d3/2 level.

Previously recorded and published photoelectron spectroscopic data for mercury in the gas phase has been reanalyzed. The life-time broadenings have been determined for a large number of core levels. It is then seen that a recent detailed derivation of core-level line-widths based on X-ray emission spectroscopy give life-time widths that are generally too large. The 4d3/24d5/2nd Coster-Kronig (CK) transition is also discussed. We find that the additional broadening of the 4d3/2 level for mercury metal is indeed due to a CK decay, in contrast to recent claims. In atomic mercury, however, the CK process in energetically forbidden. In spite of this we find that the 4d3/2 level is broadened also in this case. We propose that this is due to a mixing between the 4d3/2 hole state and discrete 4d5/2nd states.