Face-dependent Auger neutralization and ground-state energy shift for He in front of Al surfaces

Abstract

He atoms and ions with keV energies are scattered under grazing angles of incidence from Al(111), Al(100), and Al(110) surfaces. Fractions of surviving ions and normal energy gains of ${\text{He}}^{+}$ ions prior to neutralization, derived from shifts of angular distributions for incident atoms and ions, are compared to results from three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations based on theoretically calculated Auger neutralization rates and He ground-state energy shifts. From the good agreement of experimental data with simulations, we conclude a detailed microscopic understanding for a model system of ion-surface interactions. Our work provides further evidence for the recently reported surface Miller index dependence for the neutralization of ${\text{He}}^{+}$ ions at metal surfaces. The study is extended to the face dependence of the He ground-state energy shift.