An application of the dust grain charging model to determination of secondary electron spectra

Abstract

Dust grains – objects of different shapes with a size distribution from micro to nanometers – are generally considered as a part of many space as well as laboratory plasmas. Among various dust charging processes, electron-induced secondary emission plays an important role in plasmas containing a noteworthy portion of high-energy electrons. Since a part of secondary electrons has not the energy high enough to overcome the surface potential barrier, the resulting grain charge is determined not only by the secondary emission yield (related to the grain material and size) but also by the secondary electron spectrum. We have developed a model of secondary electron emission from small dust grains. In the present contribution, we discuss the profile of a secondary emission yield that can be received from the model and the measured equilibrium grain charge, both as functions of an incident electron beam energy. A comparison of these quantities leads to an estimation of secondary electron spectra. We have found that: (1) the energy spectrum of secondary electrons does not change with the energy of primary electrons and (2) the energy spectrum depends on the target material being harder for gold and silver than for glass grains.