Auger spectroscopy of silicones

Silicon LMM Auger spectra arising from a variety of silicon compounds, mostly silicones, have been studied. Silicones may be regarded, in a sense, as compounds intermediate between elemental silicon and silicon dioxide. The observed silicon Auger peak energies of silicones are found to lie between the Si (LMM) peak energies of Si and SiO2, and are correlated with the net electronic charge on silicon as estimated from a very simple model of charge transfer based on Pauling electronegativities.