Energy and angle correlations of low energy backscattered light atoms

Abstract

The correlation between the emergent energy and angle of H and He atoms that are reflected from solid surfaces has been studied using the computer program MARLOWE. Both polycrystalline and amorphous targets of Al and W have been investigated using normally incident atoms of initial energies from 0.1 to 0.5 keV. The results show that particles reflected with high energy have an angular distribution that is between cosine and isotropic. In contrast, the medium and low energy particles have a distribution that is over-cosine, that is an excess of particles emerge at angles near the surface normal. No essential differences in the shape of the angular distributions were found between the polycrystalline and amorphous targets.