L-shell alignment of heavy atoms induced by proton impact ionisation

Abstract
The polarisation of resolved characteristic L X-rays emitted from proton-excited Xe, Dy and Au atoms has been determined from their anisotropic emission. The polarisation is caused by the alignment of the initial vacancy state, which was found to change significantly within the studied proton energy range from 250 keV to 6 MeV. The results follow a universal curve in fair agreement with PWBA calculations.