Backscattering of projectile-bound electrons from solid surfaces

Abstract

The contribution of projectile ionization (PI) to secondary electron emission is studied by collision of H 2 + and H 3 + ions (400 keV/u and 700 keV/u) with carbon, copper and gold targets (600 Å). The measured doubly differential intensity distribution shows a peak of lost projectile electrons near −ν p. We describe the subtraction of the contribution of target ionization (TI), and compare the remaining electron intensities with a BEA calculation. For solids we observe a strong energy shift of the electron loss peak, which is compared with the influence of electron transport and binding energy. Furthermore, the low energy tail of the electron loss peak indicates the simultaneous occurrence of PI and TI. Finally we discuss the influence of surface conditions and the dependence of the observation angles on the measured electron intensities.