Exit angle dependence of charge-state distribution of backscattered He ions

Exit angle and energy dependences of the charge-state distribution of backscattered He ions were investigated when 500 keV He⁺ ions were incident on SiO₂. The energy dependence of the He⁺ fraction was estimated by comparing the measured He⁺ spectra with the simulated spectra of He ions in all charge states at the exit angles of 5-25° with respect to the SiO₂ surface. We found that the He⁺ fraction is almost independent of the exit angle at energies higher than 250 keV and the observed energy dependence of the He⁺ fraction is in good agreement with that for the carbon-foil-transmission experiment. In the low energy region (<250 keV), however, the He⁺ fraction decreases as the exit angle decreases.     

Site-specific recoil diffraction of backscattered electrons in crystals

A novel diffraction effect in high-energy electron backscattering is demonstrated: the formation of element-specific diffraction patterns via nuclear recoil. For sapphire (Al(2)O(3)), the difference in recoil energy allows us to determine if an electron scattered from aluminum or from oxygen. The angular electron distribution obtained in such measurements is a strong function of the recoiling lattice site. These element-specific recoil diffraction features are explained using the dynamical theory of electron diffraction. Our observations open up new possibilities for local, element-resolved crystallographic analysis using quasielastically backscattered electrons in scanning electron microscopy.     

Experimental determination of the mean scattering length of low energy electrons in bismuth

The mean scattering length of electrons emitted in the Auger decay of Sb4d core holes in Sb₂Te₃ and propagating through thin Bi films has been experimentally determined for energies ～5 to 12 eV above the Fermi level.     

Effect of backscattered electrons on the analysis area in scanning Auger microscopy

A simple analytical model has been used to determine the effects of backscattered electrons on the analysis area in scanning Auger microscopy. For normally incident electrons, the radius r_a of the analysis area is calculated corresponding to detection of 80, 90, and 95% of the total Auger-electron signal as a function of two sample parameters, the backscattering factor R and the Gaussian parameter σ_b describing the radial distribution of the backscattered electrons. For a reasonable range of these parameters, r_a depends linearly on σ_b and to a lesser extent on R. Values of r_a can also be appreciably larger, by more than a factor of 100, than the widths of the incident beam in modern instruments, and need to be considered in quantitative analyses of particles and inclusions. Monte-Carlo calculations are needed for more realistic evaluations of the analysis area and to determine this area for non-normal incidence of the electron beam.     

Effect of the dependence of the specular reflectance on the angle of incidence of electrons on the impedance

We obtain the solution to the problem of the skin effect in a metal with specular-diffusion boundary conditions for arbitrary values of the anomaly parameter in the form of the Neumann series. For this purpose, we develop a method based on the idea of representation of not only the boundary condition imposed on the field (as is conventionally done), but also the boundary condition imposed on the distribution function, in the form of a source. The specular reflectance is an arbitrary function of the angle of incidence of electrons on the metal surface.     

The effect of backscattered electrons on the resolution of scanning Auger microscopy

Measurements of the spatial distribution of Auger electrons, for the purpose of micro-Auger analysis, are presented. The distributions have been measured as a function of primary energy from 20 kV to 60 kV, and incident angle from 50° to 80°, for silver layers on tungsten, using a field-emission UHVSEM. The comparison of experiment with Monte-Carlo calculations of backscattered lectron distributions is in reasonably good agreement.     

Temperature dependence of the nematic anchoring energy: mean field analysis

In the mean field approximation, we evaluate the temperature dependence of the anchoring energy strength of a nematic liquid crystal in contact with a solid substrate due to thermal fluctuations. Our study is limited to the weak anchoring case, where the microscopic surface energy is small with respect to the mean field energy due to the nematic phase. We assume furthermore that the physical properties of the substrate can be considered temperature independent in the range of the nematic phase. According to the thermodynamical perturbative approach, the macroscopic surface energy is deduced by averaging the microscopic one, with a density matrix containing only the nematic mean field. We show that the thermal renormalization of the anchoring energy coefficients is proportional to the generalized nematic order parameters. Our analysis shows also that the thermal renormalization of the anchoring energy coefficients predicted by means of Landau-like theories is a first and rather rough approximation in the whole nematic temperature range.     

On the influence of backscattered electrons on the lateral resolution in scanning auger microscopy

A definition of edge resolution is proposed, which is adapted to the pecularities of scanning Auger microscopy. Based on recent monte-Carlo computer simulations for scanning electron microscopy, the influence of backscattered electrons on the edge resolution is estimated for low-Z (Al) and high-Z materials (Au). The resolution is found to be of the order of 100nm and to be nearly independent of the atomic number of the sample.     

The dependence of sputtering efficiency on ion energy and angle of incidence

Abstract

Earlier measurements of sputtering efficiency of polycrystalline targets (fraction of impinging ion energy leaving the target through sputtering and backscattering) have been extended to higher energies. Lead and copper targets were bombarded with several different projectiles with energies between 80 and 1200 keV. The sputtering efficiency decreases with increasing energy. This decrease is ascribed to the combined influence of changes in the scattering cross section with energy, and to electronic stopping. The results may be described as a function of the mass ratio M ₂/M ₁ and the reduced energy ? only.

The sputtering efficiency was measured as a function of angle of incidence of the bombarding ions. To ensure complete collection of sputtered and backscattered particles, it was possible to cover only the region of incidence angle from 0° to 45°. Targets of copper, silver, and lead were investigated with 17 different ion-target combinations. The sputtering efficiency increased with angle of incidence. This increase is described well by a simple interpolation formula by Sigmund.     

Energy spectra of electrons backscattered from bulk solid targets

Energy distribution spectra of backscattered electrons in the range 5–25 keV are obtained experimentally. An inverse problem of the reconstruction of the true electron spectrum is solved taking into account the instrument response function of the spectrometer; on the basis of the obtained solution, we specify functions of the real energy distribution of the electrons backscattered from homogeneous and layered samples.     

New insights on contact angle/roughness dependence on high surface energy materials

The relationship between wettability and roughness has been studied on micro-roughened titanium surface after different cleaning procedures. Whereas most studies addressing (super)-hydrophobic behaviors have so far dealt with the wetting of low surface energy and textured substrates in air environment, we here report on a totally novel system and configuration involving the wetting of highly hydrophilic, textured metallic materials in liquid alkane medium, the so-called two liquid phase method. Roughness characterization showed that substrates were isotropic (2D), at a lengthscale much smaller than the size of the drop, with a heterogeneous (vertical) distribution of peaks and valleys. Depending on whether the alkane that initially penetrates and resides in the pores is displaced or not by the water drop (as for air pockets in air environment), we show that different wetting regimes may appear, depending on the cleaning procedure. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic study dealing with the interplay between surface roughness, the wetting behavior and in particular the (super)-hydrophilicity of high surface energy substrates, in non water miscible liquid environments. Whenever competitive processes of liquid/liquid displacement are involved at such high surface energy and textured substrates, such as titanium implant in bone tissue, these results may contribute understanding and predicting their wetting behavior.     

Small angle scattering of electrons

The small angle scattering of low energy electrons has been studied. It has been shown that the cross-sections obtained using the Born's first approximation, corrected for screening effects should be used to study the small angle scattering of low energy electrons.     

Target mass dependence of mean slow particle multiplicity in high energy hadron-nucleus interaction

This work presents a study on the dependence of mean slow particle multiplicity (N_h) on the mass numberA of the target nucleus for a wide range of target mass and energy. It has been shown that this dependence can be best expressed by the relation N _h= 0.57A^0.61.The author would like to express his indebtedness to Prof. A. Herz (CERN), Prof. K. D. Tolostov (JINR), Prof. R. Wilkes (University of Washington) for kindly supplying the exposed emulsion plates.     

A new type of scanning electron microscope using the coaxial backscattered electrons

A new coaxial detection system for backscattered electrons in SEM is described. This coaxial detection system allows us to collect only the backscattered electrons that have lost a small percentage of the primary energy, emerging from the sample surface with a take-off angle defined by the objective lens. This new configuration reinforces the atomic-number contrast and suppresses effectively the topographic contrast. The simulation and experimental results confirm these expectations: this new type of SEM is very suitable for observing differences in atomic number. Moreover, by associating the obtained image with a conventional secondary electron image, we build a third (color) image that allows us to give finally at the same time, in a single image, both of the chemical and topographic information.