Energies and widths of atomic core-levels in liquid mercury

Abstract

Abstract. High-resolution measurements of the photoinduced X-ray emission of liquid mercury were performed, using a transmission DuMond-type crystal spectrometer for transitions above 11 keV and a reflection von Hamos-type crystal spectrometer for transitions below 11 keV. The target X-ray fluorescence was produced by irradiating the sample with the Bremsstrahlung from X-ray tubes. The energies and natural linewidths of 6 K-shell, 26 L-shell and 2 M -shell X-ray transitions were determined. Using a least-squaresfit method to solve the two sets of equations derived from the observed transition energies and transition widths the binding energies of the subshells K to M5 and O1 and the level widths of the subshells K to N5 and O1 could also be determined.

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

“…Most of the widths obtained in Ref. [10] are significantly larger than our values. When this difference was discussed in Ref.…”

“…When this difference was discussed in Ref. [10] it was attributed to shortcomings in the analysis of the XPS results [1]. On the contrary we can now establish that already the previous XPS results were quite accurate, and furthermore we have now derived improved values.…”

“…In Table 1 the redetermined XPS values are compared to the recent results for liquid mercury based on XES [10]. In this investigation they have studied a large number of X-ray transitions.…”

“…From this set of data, the widths of the individual core levels were determined using a least-square fit method. In this way, Maillard et al [10] derived life-time broadenings for essentially all core levels from 1s to 5s. From the least-square fitting procedure they could furthermore obtain estimates of the error bars.…”

“…[1] and [9] have more recently been questioned. Maillard et al [10] have performed a thorough analysis of photo-induced X-ray Emission Spectra (XES) for liquid mercury. Based on a large number of recordings of spectral line shapes for different transitions they have derived life-time broadenings for essentially all core levels for mercury.…”