Decay properties of K-vacancy states in Fe X–Fe XVII^*

¹ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
² Centro de Física, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), PO Box 21827, Caracas 1020A, Venezuela

Corresponding author: T. R. Kallman, timothy.r.kallman@nasa.gov

Received: 5 May 2003
Accepted: 15 October 2003

Abstract

We report extensive calculations of the decay properties of fine structure K-vacancy levels in Fe x–Fexvii. A large set of level energies, wavelengths, radiative and Auger rates, and fluorescence yields has been computed using three different standard atomic codes, namely Cowan's hfr, autostructure and the Breit–Pauli R-matrix package. This multi-code approach is used to study the effects of core relaxation, configuration interaction and the Breit interaction, and enables the estimate of statistical accuracy ratings. The Kα and KLL Auger widths have been found to be nearly independent of both the outer-electron configuration and electron occupancy keeping a constant ratio of . By comparing with previous theoretical and measured wavelengths, the accuracy of the present set is determined to be within 2 mÅ. Also, the good agreement found between the different radiative and Auger data sets that have been computed allows us to propose with confidence an accuracy rating of 20% for the line fluorescence yields greater than 0.01. Emission and absorption spectral features are predicted finding good correlation with measurements in both laboratory and astrophysical plasmas.