Analysis of low-energy (1–10 ev) electron transmission spectra of thin solid krypton films

Abstract

We present and analyse the results of low-energy electron transmission experiments performed with solid krypton films deposited on a platinum substrate at 20 K. The film thicknesses range from about 0.3 to 10 nm. The analysis of the variation of the transmitted electron current with film thickness is done with the help of a probabilistic model of particle transport in the energy region (1–10 eV) where the electron scatterings are quasi-elastic. This analysis allows the determination of the entrance probability of electrons and their mean free path in the films. The entrance probability is found to reflect the electronic conduction-band structure of solid krypton. The electron mean free path values that we obtain are large for low electron energies (about 20 nm at 1 eV) and decrease rapidly to about 2 nm for energies larger than 3.5 eV.