Measurement of the isotope composition of hydrogen in carbon materials using elastically scattered electron peak spectroscopy

The quantitative composition of hydrogen and helium isotopes in the surface layers of structural materials is reconstructed using the developed technique for processing the energy spectra of electrons scattered from plane-parallel layers of solids into a preset solid angle element. These are the spectra measured with a high energy resolution ΔE ∷ 0.2−0.4 eV. The change in the shape of peaks for elastically scattered electrons is analyzed depending on the probe electron beam energy and experimental geometry. The theory of electrons scattered from plane-parallel layers of solids is constructed using the solution of the boundary value problem for the transfer equation by invariant immersion methods. The analytic solution to the system of equations is found in the small-angle approximation for the reflection and transmission functions. The results of calculations are compared with experimental data on electron scattering from polyethylene. The shape of the energy spectra of electron scattering from deuterium and tritium is predicted. The sensitivity threshold of the method relative to percentage concentration of hydrogen isotopes in hydrocarbons is analyzed.     

Weak localization of inelastically reflected electrons under auger emission conditions

A new type of weak localization of electrons emerging during electron emission is considered. It is manifested in singularities of the angular spectra of particles reflected inelastically from a solid and causing Auger ionization of the atoms. The orientational dependences in this case appear as a result of interference of two types of processes. In one case, an electron from the primary beam penetrates the solid, undergoes inelastic scattering, ionizes an atom, and is then scattered elastically through a large angle, after which it leaves the solid. In the other case, elastic scattering of an electron precedes its inelastic scattering due to the Auger ionization of an atom. The azimuthal angular dependences of currents created by inelastically reflected electrons contain information on new processes of weak localization of particles.     

Wirkungsquerschnitt und Winkelverteilung der elastischen und unelastischen Elektronenstreuung in Aluminiumschichten

Absolute intensity measurements of the electrons scattered by a polycrystalline Aluminium foil were carried out in the energy range between 25 and 50 keV. The electrons scattered elastically were separated from those scattered inelastically by means of a retarding field. The intensities of the electrons having passed the foil unscattered and of those which were scattered elastically into the Debye-Scherrerrings and into the continuous background can be interpreted by the assumption of reasonable thicknesses of the crystalline Aluminium and the amorphous Aluminium-Oxide. These values agree approximately with the thickness measured by light absorption. Additionally the probability of the inelastic scattering process can be deduced from these measurements. Investigations of the angular distribution were carried out in order to study the influence of the inelastic scattering on the shape of the primary beam, the rings and the continuous background. The results are discussed in detail. Some results are given in particular, concerning the increase of the half width of the rings due to inelastic scattering processes.     

Messung der Spinpolarisation von 900 eV-Elektronen nach elastischer Streuung an Schwermetallfolien in Abhängigkeit von der Targettemperatur

900 eV electrons are elastically scattered by solid targets of tungsten, platinum and gold. The angular dependence of the scattered intensity and of spin polarizationP(Θ) is investigated as a function of the target temperature. The influence of hydrogen on the scattering process by a gold target is investigated too.     

Eine Gegenfeldanordnung zur Messung von Energie- und Winkelverteilungen gestreuter Elektronen

In a previous paper direct electron-intensity measurements in Debye-Scherrer diagrams of aluminium have been described. A retarding field apparatus was used for investigations into the influence of crystal size and electron energy (15 to 50 keV) on the elastic diffraction intensities. The validity range of the kinematical theory could be determined. By means of a retarding field the inelastically scattered electrons were separated from the elastically scattered electrons (energy loss below 2 eV). In this paper the retarding field apparatus by which scattering intensities can be measured with good accuracy (≈ 2%) is described in detail. It is compared with other arrangements for the measurements of angular and energy distributions of scattered electrons.     

Herstellung und Nachweis polarisierter Elektronenstrahlen durch zweimalige Streuung von Glühelektronen kleiner Energie (1–2 keV) an Hg-Atomstrahlen

Beams of electrons of low energy (1 to 2 keV) are elastically scattered twice by atomic beams of mercury. A maximum intensity asymmetry of 200δ=31±5 was observed for double 90° scattering of 1500 eV electrons.     

Determination of the thickness of a gold layer deposited onto silicon via reflected electron spectroscopy

The energy spectra of electrons reflected from a gold layer deposited onto a silicon substrate have been measured when the energy losses are comparable with the energy of a probe electron beam (5 keV) and the elastic energy losses correspond to an electron-beam energy of 14 keV. A subsequent theory for calculating the energy spectra of electrons and light ions reflected from a multilayer target, which is used to interpret the energy spectra measured in the wide range of energy losses, has been developed. It is found that the elastic scattering processes in the gold layer (the thickness of which is tens of monolayers) substantially affect formation of the energy spectra. The Au layer thicknesses calculated by means of the developed theory are compared with those determined from the spectra of elastically reflected electrons. The errors of the Au layer thickness measurements via the proposed method are discussed.     

Effect of metallic surface microroughness on the probability and spectrum of plasmon excitation by a fast charged particle moving parallel to the surface

The Green’s function of the electric field of plasmons is determined in a semi-infinite medium with an abrupt plasma boundary where nonequilibrium conduction electrons either undergo elastic reflection from the boundary or “stick” to it and give rise to a stationary surface charge. The angular reflection of elastically scattered electrons can be either specular or diffuse. The Green’s function is used to find the singleevent spectrum of energy loss by a fast electron moving parallel to the boundary. The effect of electronboundary scattering parameters on the structure of bulk and surface plasmon resonances is analyzed. The probability of transition radiation of bulk plasmon by an electron moving in vacuum is examined. A new type of surface resonance is found under conditions of perfectly elastic scattering of conduction electrons from the plasma boundary, similar in structure to a tangential surface plasmon.     

Angular pattern of electron diffraction by reflection in the plasmon channel of energy losses

We have constructed a theory for the excitation of plasmons by a fast charged particle that undergoes diffraction in a single crystal and then is scattered elastically and incoherently through a large angle. The theory allows the 30-year-old experimental results that have seemed strange to be explained. An increase in the diffraction contrast in the channel of inelastic electron scattering related to the excitation of a bulk plasmon compared to the diffraction contrast of elastically and incoherently reflected electrons was observed in these experiments. Based on this theory, we show that the excitation of a surface plasmon affects only slightly the angular diffraction pattern, leaving it almost the same as that for elastically reflected electrons. These peculiarities of elastic and inelastic diffraction can be used to identify the type of energy plasma loss.     

Electron emission from surfaces of alkali halides under the impact of metastable helium and neon atoms

Energy distributions of the electrons ejected from the evaporated film surfaces of LiF, LiCl, LiBr, NaF and NaCl by the impact of metastable He and Ne atoms have been measured. The observed distribution curves have two distinct structures: one peak is identified as the valence band structure caused by Penning ionization, while the other peak is ascribed to scattered electrons. The positions of the valence band peaks are shifted to lower ionization energy from the corresponding photoelectron peaks (by 0.1–1.5 eV depending on the substance). In contrast to the photoelectron spectra, the structure attributable to conduction bands appears only very weakly. The relative intensity of the peak caused by scattered electrons is either strong or weak depending on the combination of the metastable atom and the sample. The interpretation of this observation is that the scattered electron peak is enhanced when the energy of the metastable atom exceeds twice the band gap energy, i.e. when the electron—electron scattering of Penning electrons in the solid is feasible.     

Quasielastic electron scattering in the giant-resonance energy region

A new method is proposed for extracting the quasielastic portion of the spectrum of scattered electrons. The method is based on the so-called “bin” technique within which a multipole analysis is followed by a determination of the resonance shape and magnitude. The method essentially consists in performing a simultaneous multipole analysis of the mixture of quasielastic and resonance cross sections. A subsequent identification of resonance peaks in the cross section and its quasielastic portion is performed in the energy dependence of the transition probability for each multipolarity, since, there, the difference between the resonance and quasielastic processes is more pronounced than in the spectra of scattered electrons. The method makes it possible to reconstruct the process and to find the energy dependence of the quasielastic cross section in the primary spectra of scattered electrons. The spectra of quasielastically scattered electrons are obtained by the method in question for the ⁶⁵Cu nucleus. The positions of the quasielastic-peak maxima and their shift with respect to the case of scattering on a free nucleon are determined in the momentum-transfer range q = 0.5–1.2 fm^?1.     

The elastic scattering of low energy electrons from Xenon

Calculations are presented of angular distributions for electrons elastically scattered from xenon in the energy range 5.5 to 10 eV. The potential describing the xenon atom is determined by the X_α-approximation. The relative dependence with energy of the differential cross section at 30° scattering angle has been calculated in the range 30 to 200 eV. The theoretical results are in very good agreement with experimental data.     

Die Winkelverteilung im Bereich 30 bis 155° von elastisch an Golddampf gestreuten Elektronen mit Energien zwischen 150 und 1900 eV

The angular distribution of electrons scattered elastically by gold atoms has been investigated over the angular range from 30 to 155° and with electron energies between 150 and 1900 eV. The scattering curves obtained resemble closely the corresponding curves for mercury atoms. The theoretically expected energy dependence of the 90°-scattering is in poor agreement only with the results obtained experimentally in this work.     

Comparative analysis of characteristic electron energy loss spectra and inelastic scattering cross-section spectra of Fe

The inelastic electron scattering cross section spectra of Fe have been calculated based on experimental spectra of characteristic reflection electron energy loss as dependences of the product of the inelastic mean free path by the differential inelastic electron scattering cross section on the electron energy loss. It has been shown that the inelastic electron scattering cross-section spectra have certain advantages over the electron energy loss spectra in the analysis of the interaction of electrons with substance. The peaks of energy loss in the spectra of characteristic electron energy loss and inelastic electron scattering cross sections have been determined from the integral and differential spectra. It has been shown that the energy of the bulk plasmon is practically independent of the energy of primary electrons in the characteristic electron energy loss spectra and monotonically increases with increasing energy of primary electrons in the inelastic electron scattering cross-section spectra. The variation in the maximum energy of the inelastic electron scattering cross-section spectra is caused by the redistribution of intensities over the peaks of losses due to various excitations. The inelastic electron scattering cross-section spectra have been analyzed using the decomposition of the spectra into peaks of the energy loss. This method has been used for the quantitative estimation of the contributions from different energy loss processes to the inelastic electron scattering cross-section spectra of Fe and for the determination of the nature of the energy loss peaks.     

Experimental observation of the strong influence of crystal orientation on Electron Rutherford Backscattering Spectra

In Electron Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy (ERBS) energetic electrons (in our case up to 40 keV) impinge on a target and one measures the energy of elastically scattered electrons. This energy depends on the mass of the scattering atom, due to the recoil effect. This technique thus provides information about the sample composition. For single crystals the interaction of the projectile electron with the crystal potential modifies the angular intensity distribution of the scattered electrons. This leads, for example, to the well-known Kikuchi patterns. Here we investigate if such modified angular distribution has any influence on the intensity ratio of the observed elastic peaks in ERBS. Dramatic effects are found. Implications of these observations for quantitative surface analysis using energetic electrons are discussed.     

Wirkungsquerschnitte für elastische und unelastische Elektronenstreuung an amorphen Kohlenstoff- und Germaniumschichten

Absolute intensities of electrons scattered by amorphous carbon and germanium foils were measured for various energies (20–60 keV) and foil thicknesses (200–800 Å). Electrons scattered elastically were separated from those scattered inelastically by means of a retarding field. Thus total cross sectionsσ _e for elastic scattering andσ _u for inelastic scattering were obtained. Agreement of observed and theoretical values is satisfactory, especially regarding the dependence on electron energy.     

The electrical conductivity for inhomogeneous electric fields by the Liouville operator method

A derivation is given of the electrical conductivity for a metal in a space- and time-dependent electric field. Thereby it is assumed that the electrons are scattered elastically by randomly distributed impurities. The derivation starts from the Kubo-Nakajima formula and is based on a perturbation expansion with Liouville operators, where use is made of van Hove's diagonal singularity property of the scattering potential. The formulae obtained are compact and the method is simpler and more transparent than the perturbation formalism developed by van Hove. It is shown that the lowest order approximation corresponds to the Boltzmann equation for electrons in inhomogeneous electric fields.     

两维位置灵敏探测器的能量和动量响应函数刻度

用弹性散射对多通道(e,2e)谱仪两维位置灵敏探测器的能量和动量响应函数进行了刻度,从位置灵敏探测器输出的两维位置信息中获得了弹性散射的能谱和角度谱,估计了在当前实验条件下的能量分辨和角度分辨.同时,我们用正交多项式的最小二乘法拟合得到了谱仪单路的能量和动量响应函数.     

Determining the applicability boundaries of small-angle approximation solutions to the radiative transfer equation for elastic peak electron spectroscopy

The nonlinear term of the radiative transfer equation is considered in the small-angle approximation. Angular distributions of electrons elastically scattered from semi-infinite Au and Be samples are calculated. The error introduced by calculating flows of electrons elastically scattered from a semi-infinite target in the small-angle approximation is estimated.