The alignment of the M 3 subshell of gold following proton impact ionization was studied with projectile energies in the range from 160 keV up to 5MeV. The experiments were performed by measuring the poIarization of emitted M X-rays be means of a 5 in. Johansson crystal spectrometer. A good agreement of the experimental data and the results of theoretical SCA calculations was found.

Abstract. The energy dependence of the alignment of 42Mo, 4TAg L3 shell and 79Au, 9oTh M 3 shell following impact ionization by ions with atomic number Z 1 =2 (helium) to Z1 = 18 (argon) was studied with a 5 in Johansson crystal spectrometer analyzing the degree of Xray polarization. Experimental information about the amount of multiple ionization was obtained. The observed small negative alignment is concerned to be due to dealignment by couplings between the created vacancies. Large positive values of the alignment parameter as previously reported for the 79Au L 3 shell is slow heavy ion collisions were not observed.