Single and double Auger decays from highly-excited vibrational sublevels in core-ionized N₂ molecules

Single and double Auger decays from vibrationally excited core-ionized N₂ molecules are studied using multielectron coincidence spectroscopy. The high vibrational sublevels (ν ≥ 5) of the core-hole state are populated via autoionization following core-valence double excitation. The features of the Auger spectra vary significantly as the initial vibrational excitation increases, which reflects the vibrational wave functions in the core-hole state and the repulsive potential energy curves for Auger final states.