Electron emission from solid surfaces due to slow highly charged ion impact


Electron emission from solid surfaces due to slow highly charged ion impact

Wilhelm, R. A.; Heller, R.; Meissl, W.; Aumayr, F.; Facsko, S.

Slow highly charged ions (HCI) and their interaction with surfaces reveal many interesting phenomena, e.g. nanostructure formation, non-equilibrium ion stopping and charge exchange as well as extremely large electron emission yields [1,2].
The emission of electrons is tightly connected to the neu- tralization process of the HCI above and below the sur- face. When the ion approaches the surface it starts to capture electrons near the Fermi edge into high Rydberg states in the ion and subsequently emits Auger electrons upon de-excitation. The process is well described by the classical-over-barrier model [3]. However, for normal incidence the time for neutralization of the ion above the surface is not sufficient. Hence, the neutralization pro- ceeds below the surface with accompanied sub-surface electron emission.
We present here recent experimental data on the second- ary electron emission yield from highly charged Xe im- pinging on Au, KBr, LiF and CaF2 surfaces (see fig. 1). The data shows that so called potential emission, i.e. secondary electron emission by neutralization (potential energy conversion) becomes significant for low ion ve- locities (v < 105 m/s) [4].
The large amount of HCI induced electrons emitted from the surface opens the possibility of correlative studies of nanostructuring by HCI and subsequent electron spec- tromicroscopy.
Our planned Low Energy Ion Nano-Engineering Facility (LEINEF) at the Ion Beam Center of the Helmholtz- Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf will comprise several HCI sources, a medium and low energy ion scattering set-up, a focused ion beam set-up, Auger and x-ray photoelec- tron spectroscopy as well as a low energy electron mi- croscope (LEEM). The latter one may be equipped with an ion gun or a HCI source to perform correlative nanostructuring and electron spectromicroscopy with electrons from the LEEM source as well as ion induced secondary electrons.

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    Low Energy Electrons: Dynamics and Correlation near Surfaces and Nanostructures (LEE2015), 07.-11.09.2015, Hernstein, Österreich

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