Abstract. The K[3 spectra of molybdenum, palladium and lanthanum bombarded by 6.7 MeV/amu 4He ions were measured with a transmission curved crystal spectrometer. L and M satellite lines were observed and resolved. Experimental energies are compared with those calculated with a MCDF program. M-shell ionization probabilities are deduced from the measured satellite intensity ratios and compared with theoretical (SCA) predictions.The experimental values are found to be higher than the calculated ones (by a factor of 2 for La and a factor of about 4 for Mo and Pd). The influence of coupling effects, electron wave functions, electron capture, electron correlation and target activation is discussed.