Autoionization

Autoionization is a process by which an atom or a molecule in an excited state spontaneously emits one of the outer-shell electrons, thus going from a state with charge Z to a state with charge Z + 1, for example from an electrically neutral state to a singly ionized state.

This article is about autoionization of a single atom or molecule in atomic physics. For molecular autoionization by reaction of two identical molecules (a different process studied in solution chemistry), see Molecular autoionization.

Autoionizing states are usually short-lived, and thus can be described as Fano resonances rather than normal bound states. They can be observed as variations in the ionization cross sections of atoms and molecules, by photoionization, electron ionization and other methods.

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