Elastic electron backscattering from surfaces: Prediction of maximum intensity

Journal Article · Mon Mar 15 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.47.7420· OSTI ID:6748523

Jablonski, A ^[1]; Jansson, C; Tougaard, S ^[2]

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1. Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, ulica Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warszawa (Poland)
2. Fysisk Institut, Odense Universitet, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M (Denmark)

In the present work, systematic Monte Carlo simulations were applied to calculate the intensity of elastically backscattered electrons as a function of energy and exit angle for 27 elements in the energy range from 50 to 2000 eV. By comparison to available experimental data, it is found that the applied theory accounts well for the shape of the energy dependence as well as for the absolute values of the elastic reflection coefficient. As a function of energy, the intensity of elastically backscattered electrons is usually found to pass a maximum. For each element, the energy position of this maximum and the corresponding intensity has been determined as a function of the direction with respect to the surface normal. It is found that the results for all 27 elements can be summarized by division into five characteristic groups corresponding to a different number of maxima or to distinctly different intensities. These groups can be defined by separate ranges of the atomic number. Representative results for each of these five groups are shown in detail. Knowledge of the position of the maximum and its value may be important to optimize such experimental surface-sensitive techniques that make use of elastically backscattered electrons in the energy range 50--3000 eV.

• OSTI ID: 6748523
• Journal Information: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States), Vol. 47:12; ISSN 0163-1829
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ELECTRON COLLISIONS
BACKSCATTERING
SURFACES
ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELASTIC SCATTERING
ENERGY DEPENDENCE
EV RANGE
KEV RANGE 01-10
MONTE CARLO METHOD
CALCULATION METHODS
COLLISIONS
DISTRIBUTION
ENERGY RANGE
KEV RANGE
SCATTERING
SIMULATION
665300* - Interactions Between Beams & Condensed Matter- (1992-)