Electron coincidence studies of sulfur-overlayers on Cu(001) and Ni(001) surfaces

We have prepared different sulfur-overlayers on Cu(001) and Ni(001) surfaces which differ in their coverage and local environment of the S adatoms. Via photon absorption we excited the S 2p level and studied the subsequent Auger decay with a coincidence spectrometer. We discuss the variation of the coincidence rate as a function of the energy sum of the photo-Auger electron pair. This is linked to the binding energy of the double-hole state. We find that the photon energy has no dramatic influence on the spectra. Differences are observed when the local environment of sulfur is changed. The observed spectral changes are mainly ascribable to the variation of the density of states at the different surfaces. On the contrary, the strength of electron-electron correlation at the surface states is hardly affected by coverage or substrate variation.