A Monte Carlo study of reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy spectrum of a carbon contaminated surface

Abstract

It has been experimentally found that the carbon surface contamination influences strongly the spectrum signals in reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy (REELS) especially at low primary electron energy. However, there is still little theoretical work dealing with the carbon contamination effect in REELS. Such a work is required to predict REELS spectrum for layered structural sample, providing an understanding of the experimental phenomena observed. In this study, we present a numerical calculation result on the spatially varying differential inelastic mean free path for a sample made of a carbon contamination layer of varied thickness on a SrTiO3 substrate. A Monte Carlo simulation model for electron interaction with a layered structural sample is built by combining this inelastic scattering cross-section with the Mott's cross-section for electron elastic scattering. The simulation results have clearly shown that the contribution of the electron energy loss from carbon surface contamination increases with decreasing primary energy due to increased individual scattering processes along trajectory parts carbon contamination layer. Comparison of the simulated spectra for different thicknesses of the carbon contamination layer and for different primary electron energies with experimental spectra clearly identifies that the carbon contamination in the measured sample was in the form of discontinuous islands other than the uniform film.