Fluorescence and Other Yields of the LII Shell in Pu

A study has been made of the L x-radiations emitted after the disintegration of 242Cm to determine, as accurately as possible, the fluorescence and other yields of the LII sub-shell in Pu. Observations have been made (i) on the total intensity per disintegration of the L x-rays by observing the L x-ray photons in coincidence with α-particles from 242Cm, (ii) on the relative intensity of the L x-rays from the LII and LIII sub-shells. The sensitivity of the curved crystal spectrograph used for the latter observations had previously been determined. The experimental results are: fluorescence yield ω2=0.413 ± 0.02, Coster-Kronig yield f23=0.22 ± 0.08, and Auger yield a2=0.37 ± 0.08. The total fluorescence yield of the L shells is ω=0.486 ± 0.01. The values of ω2 and ω are independent of previous work on fluorescence yields, but for the distribution of yields between f23 and a2 it was necessary to use an extrapolated value of ω3.