Monte Carlo Simulation of Background in electron spectroscopies

Abstract

Recent progress in getting precise knowledge on inelastic scattering, particularly, on dielectric functions for various types of material has been enabling the electron spectroscopic spectra obtained by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy (REELS) to be reproduced theoretically with considerable success. For this Monte Carlo simulation is probably most powerful tool, leading to more comprehensive understanding of not only the signal generation but also the background formation.In this paper we present a Monte Carlo simulation approach based on the uses of Mott-scattering cross section and appropriate dielectric function for describing elastic scattering and inelastic scatterings, respectively. With respect to the dielectric function one can use, to good approximation in general, the optical dielectric constants from the data base provided by synchrotron radiation facilities.As typical examples of the Monte Carlo simulation the applications to the AES, XPS, and REELS are shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The N(E)-spectrum in Fig.l demonstrates how the Monte Carlo simulation describes the energy loss spectrum due to plasmon excitation near at primary energy, general shape of energy distributions of backscattered electrons and secondary electrons.