Collisional excitation in Neon-like projectiles scattered from Al

We performed experiments of electron emission in the interaction of singly charged Na+ and Ne+ with Al surfaces. We compare Auger emission from sodium and neon projectiles excited in the 2p level by promotion of the 4fσ molecular orbital of the transient molecule, formed during a binary collision with an Al target atom. Doubly excited states are formed in single scattering events involving neutral Neon projectiles and neon-like Na+ ions. Measurements performed with Neon projectiles at impact energy up to 10 keV reveal the onset 2s excitation via promotion of the 3pσ molecular orbital. The fact, that several promotion processes become active with increasing ion energy, has implication on recent energy loss and energy deposition studies.