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The Auger effect ejects electrons from high-mass atoms or ions, something happening sometimes when an electron makes a transition from an outer electron shell to an inner shell, the transition resulting in an X-ray photon with enough energy that it (in turn) ejects an electron from an outer shell. An outgoing lower-energy photon is also typically generated.
The initial inner-shell vacancy can be the result of an incoming high-energy photon or free electron. The Auger effect is sometimes called X-ray fluorescence, because the photon emitted has a lower frequency than an X-ray photon causing the excitation, the escaping electron carrying away some of the energy.
The term Auger de-excitation refers to the de-excitation of an ion due to the effect, and the term Auger electron refers to an electron ejected due to the effect.