Correlated electron dynamics at surfaces investigated via He2+ ion neutralization

The neutralization of a single He2+ ion near a Ir surface leads to the emission of an electron pair. Via coincidence spectroscopy we give evidence that a sizable amount of these electron pairs originate from a correlated single step neutralization of the ion involving a total of four electrons from the metal. These correlated electron pairs cannot be explained in the common picture of two consecutive and independent neutralization steps. We infer a characteristic time scale for the correlated electron dynamics in the metal of 40–400 as.