Auger effect (Meitner–Auger effect)
Efecto Auger (efecto Meitner-Auger)
- Date
- 1922 (Meitner) / 1923 (Auger) · confidence high
- Place
- Berlin, Germany
- Credited to
- Lise Meitner (first observed in 1922); independently rediscovered by Pierre Auger in 1923
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
While studying beta-ray spectra of radioactive substances, Meitner observed that an excited atom can release an inner electron without emitting a photon, transferring the energy directly to another electron that is ejected. Auger independently described the same phenomenon a year later while analysing a Wilson cloud chamber, and the effect ended up bearing his name.
The discovery is usually credited to Auger alone, but Lise Meitner had published it a year earlier, in 1922; it is now often called the Meitner–Auger effect.
What it led to
- Auger electron spectroscopy (AES)
- Surface analysis in materials science
Built on
- X-ray spectroscopy