Simulation of Auger electron image contrast formation is helpful for analyzing the images in scanning Auger microscopy/microanalysis(SAM),which provides elemental and chemical composition of surface and,thus,applies to the material evaluation and identification for many kinds of materials.……
The effective energy loss functions for Al have been derived from differential i nverse inelastic mean free path based on the extended Landau approach. It has be en revealed that the effective energy loss function is very close in value to th e theoretical surface energy loss function in the lower energy loss region but g radually approaches the theoretical bulk energy loss function in the higher ener gy loss region. Moreover, the intensity corresponding to surface excitation in e ffective energy loss functions decreases with the increase of primary electron e nergy. These facts show that the present effective energy loss function describe s not only surface excitation but also bulk excitation. At last, REELS spectra s imulated by Monte Carlo method based on use of the effective energy loss functio ns has reproduced the experimental REELS spectra with considerable success.
The investigation of influence of surface effects on the energy spectra of elect rons is essential for comprehensive understanding of electron-solid interactions as well as quantitative analysis. The accuracy of the analysis depends on the m odels for elastic and inelastic interactions. Electrons impinging on a solid or escaping from it suffer losses in the surface layer. The energy loss spectra the refore have contributions from surface excitations. The role of surface excitati ons is characterized by surface excitation parameter (SEP), which indicates the number of surface plasmons created by an electron crossing the surface. The imag inary part of complex self-energy of an electron is related to the energy loss c ross section. SEP is numerically computed using self-energy formalism and compar ed with the results as described and calculated by different workers.
A Monte Carlo model considering the electron spin direction and spin asymmetry h as been developed. The energy distribution of the secondary electron polarizatio n and the primary energy dependence of the polarization from Fe are studied. The simulation results show that: (1) the intensity of the spin-up secondary electr ons is larger thanvthat of thevspin-down secondary electrons, suggesting the s econdary electrons are spin polarized; (2) the spin polarization of secondary el ectrons with nearly zero kinetic energy is higher than the average valance spin polarization, Pb=27% for Fe. With increasing kinetic energy, the spin polarizat ion of the secondary electrons decreases to the value of Pb, remaining constant at higher kinetic energies; (3) the spin polarization increases with an increase in the primary energy and reaches a saturation value at higher primary energy i n both the Monte Carlo simulation and experimental results.
The full energy distribution of backscattered electrons from the elastic peak do wn to the true-secondary electron peak for heavy metals, Ta, W, Pt and Au, in Au ger electron spectroscopy in the EN(E) mode has been studied with a Monte Carlo simulation method, which includes cascade-secondary-electron production. The sim ulation model is based on the use of a dielectric function for describing inelas tic scattering and secondary excitation, and on the use of Mott cross sections f or elastic scattering. A systematic comparison between the calculated and experi mental spectra measured with a cylindrical mirror analyzer has been made for pri mary energies ranging from 1 to 5keV. Excellent agreement was obtained for these heavy metals on the backscattering background at primary energies in the keV re gion. A significant contribution of cascade secondary electrons to the measured spectra on the low-energy side was found.
