Controlled interplay between decay and fragmentation in resonant Auger processes

Wave packet dynamics applied to the resonant Auger spectrum of HF bring to light novel interference effects introduced by selective excitation. By detuning the excitation energy off the resonance these effects are shown to be strongly enhanced. Besides the quenching of the so-called “atomic lines” by detuning, an unexpected prominent structure dominates the spectrum in the case of small detuning towards higher excitation energies. The underlying interference mechanisms are identified by tracing the physically relevant quantities on the real time scale of the process.