Incident Electron Research Articles

Anticathode effect on electron kinetics in electron beam generated E×B plasma

Abstract Electron beam (e-beam) generated plasmas with applied crossed electric and magnetic (E×B) fields are promising for low damage processing of materials with applications to microelectronics and quantum information systems. In cylindrical e-beam E×B plasmas, radial confinement of electrons and ions is achieved by an axial magnetic field and radial electric field, respectively. To control the axial confinement of electrons, such e-beam generated plasma sources may incorporate a conducting boundary known as an anticathode, which is placed on the axially opposite side of the plasma from the cathode. In this work, it is shown that varying the anticathode voltage bias can control the degree to which the anticathode collects or repels incident electrons, allowing control of warm electron (electron energies in 10-30 eV range) and beam electron population confinement. It is suggested that the effect of the anticathode bias on the formation of these distinct electron populations is also associated with the transition between weak turbulence and strong Langmuir turbulence.

Characterization of brass mesh bolus for electron beam therapy

Purpose. Bolus is often required for targets close to or on skin surface, however, standard bolus on complex surfaces can result in air gaps that compromise dosimetry. Brass mesh boluses (RPD, Inc., Albertville, MN) are designed to conform to the patient's surface and reduce air gaps. While they have been well characterized for their use with photons, minimal characterization exists in literature for their use with electrons.Methods and materials.Dosimetric characteristics of brass mesh bolus was investigated for use with 6, 9 and 12 MeV electrons using a 10×10 cm2applicator on standard multi-energy LINAC. Measurements for bolus equivalence and percentage depth doses (PDDs) under brass mesh, as well as surface dose measurements were performed on solid water and a 3D printed resin breast phantom (Anycubic Photon MonoX, Shenzhen, China) using Markus®parallel-plate ionization chamber (Model 34045, PTW Freiburg, Germany), thermoluminescent detectors (TLD) and EBRT film. After obtaining surface dose measurements, these were compared to dose calculated on the Pinnacle3 treatment planning system (TPS, 16.2, Koninklijke Philips N.V.).Results. Measurements of surface dose under brass mesh showed consistently higher dose than without bolus, confirming that brass mesh can increase the PDD at surface up to ∼ 94% of dose at dmax, depending on incident electron energy. This increase is equivalent to using ∼ 7.2 mm water equivalent bolus for 6 MeV, ∼ 3.6 mm for 9 MeV and ∼ 2.2 mm bolus for 12 MeV electrons. TPS results showed close agreement within-vivomeasurements, confirming the potential for brass mesh as bolus for electron irradiation, provided blousing effect is correctly modelled.Conclusions. To increase electron surface dose, a brass mesh can be used with equivalent effect of water-density bolus varying with electron energy. Proper implementation could allow for ease of treatment, as well as increase bolus conformality in electron-only plans.

Electron Shock Drift Acceleration at a Low-Mach-number, Low-plasma-beta Quasi-perpendicular Shock

Shock drift acceleration (SDA) plays an important role in generating high-energy electrons at quasi-perpendicular shocks, but its efficiency in low-beta plasmas is questionable. In this article, we perform a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation of a low-Mach-number, low-plasma-beta quasi-perpendicular shock, and find that the electron cyclotron drift instability is unstable at the leading edge of the shock foot, which is excited by the relative drift between the shock-reflected ions and the incident electrons. The electrostatic waves triggered by the electron cyclotron drift instability can scatter and heat the incident electrons, which facilitates their escape from the shock’s loss cone. These electrons are then reflected by the shock and energized by SDA. In this way, the acceleration efficiency of SDA at low-plasma-beta quasi-perpendicular shocks is highly enhanced.

Andreev reflection in topological nodal-line semimetals superconductor junction

Abstract Andreev reflection is an important quantum tunneling phenomenon in the conductor-superconductor junction. The Andreev reflection coefficients TAR of a hybrid system with s-wave superconductor connected by topological nodal-line semimetals (TNLSMs-SC junction system) is calculated theoretically by using the Landauer-Büttiker formula combined with the nonequilibrium Green’s function method. The results show that when the direction of the boundary state electron and the incident electron are the same, only the bulk states of the TNLSMs involve the Andreev reflection of the hybrid system, and the Andreev reflection coefficients TAR enhance with the increase of the Fermi energy EF . We also study the effect of on-site energy µz and mass term m on the Andreev reflection and find that the Andreev reflection in the system decreases rapidly with the increase of on-site energy µz and mass term m. Moreover, we find that only in the presence of a mass term m, the Andreev reflection coefficients TAR of the system changes with the rise of the Fermi energy EF . When a perpendicular magnetic field is applied in the system, the Andreev reflection coefficients TARin the superconducting gap will appear a series of oscillating peaks. For a hybrid system with the large perpendicular magnetic field applied, we find that the maximum Andreev reflection coefficients TAR=7.2 at the Fermi energy EF = 0.0 and the incident electron energy E = ±0.1. The Andreev reflection coefficients TAR is gradually enhanced in the superconducting gap (incident energy |E| ≤ 0.2) when a disorder is applied to the superconductor region of the system. However, the symmetry of the Andreev reflection coefficients TARis broken when the perpendicular magnetic field is applied to the system. These peculiar transport properties of the TNLSMs-SC junction system are expected to provide theoretical guidance for future applications.

High-resolution anionic velocity map imaging apparatus for dissociative electron attachment dynamics study.

Dissociative electron attachment (DEA) of a molecular target XY, e- + XY → XY- → X + Y-, is an important process in plasma, atmosphere, interstellar space, and ionizing radiation. DEA dynamics, i.e., the formation and fragmentation of an electron-molecule resonant complex, can be unveiled by measuring the product Y- with the velocity map imaging (VMI) technique. However, it is still challenging to achieve a high-resolution VMI measurement. Recently, we developed a high-resolution DEA apparatus that combined the VMI technique with a trochoidal electron monochromator. The energy spread (around 500meV) of thermally emitted incident electrons can be reduced remarkably, but the monochromatized electrons become diffuse again in energy when being pulsed with an electric pulse applied on the grid electrode because the electron beam must be pulsed in the VMI measurement. Now this long-standing technical contradiction is settled by introducing a parallel resistance-capacitor circuit to the electrode of an electron gun. A delay-line detector is used for the VMI measurement, which allows the three-dimensional velocity or momentum images of multiple anionic yields to be recorded efficiently. Our high-resolution VMI apparatus works at a pulse frequency of 5kHz and an energy spread of about 120-150meV, and its credible performances are exhibited by the measurements of the DEA processes of CO(a3Π) and NO2.

Electric and magnetic waveguides in graphene: quantum and classical

Electric and magnetic waveguides are considered in planar Dirac materials like graphene as well as their classical version for relativistic particles of zero mass and electric charge. We have assumed the displacement symmetry of the system along the y-direction, whose associated constant is k. We have also examined other symmetries relevant to each type of waveguide, magnetic or electric. Waveguides with square profile have been worked out in detail to show up explicitly some of the most interesting features. For example, the classical region of confined motion of the electric case, for a fixed intensity, is bounded between k and −k, while in the magnetic case that region is symmetric in the energy and presents a gap (−k, k). Besides, in the quantum systems we have shown that there are edge states in the magnetic systems but they are missing in electric waveguides. We have also analysed scattering states and resonances which match with bound states for both waveguides. The classical scattering properties are also quite different in both types of waveguides. While the electric system has essentially one type of refraction of the incident electron, the magnetic system is much richer due to the Lorentz force.

Spin/valley dependent dwell time in an 8-Pmmn borophene junction

Spin/valley dependent dwell time in 8-Pmmn borophene junction under Rashba spin–orbit interaction (RSOI) is studied. The dwell time as well as transmission probability for incident electrons with spin-up show a different behavior than the incident electrons with spin-down, and these quantities can be controlled effectively by the junction direction, incident angle, the RSOI strength and the barrier width. Also, the dwell time is dependent on the degree of freedom of the valley and shows oscillating behavior with the increase of the barrier width. The spin polarization and spin filtering in 8-Pmmn borophene junction under RSOI can be obtained in the time domain.

Inverse muon decay in a circularly polarized laser field

In this paper, we investigate the effect of a circularly polarized laser field on the inverse muon decay process [Formula: see text] in electroweak theory with the exchange of a boson vector [Formula: see text]. Our method accounts for the dressing of incident electron and scattered muon by introducing the first-order laser-matter interaction of perturbation theory and using the relativistic Dirac–Volkov formalism. We have analyzed the behavior of the total cross-section (TCS) with charged-current as a function of the center-of-mass energy and the laser field parameters, such as the number of photons exchanged, the laser field strength and frequency. We have found that the circularly polarized laser field significantly affects the inverse muon decay process by reducing the TCS. We have also shown that the photonic energy transfer envelopes are perfectly symmetric with respect to the number of photons exchanged and rapidly drop when the indices of the Bessel functions are close to their arguments.

Radial dependence of ionization clustering around a gold nanoparticle irradiated by X-rays under charged particle equilibrium

Objective.This work explores the enhancement of ionization clustering and its radial dependence around a gold nanoparticle (NP), indicative of the induction of DNA lesions, a potential trigger for cell-death.Approach.Monte Carlo track structure simulations were performed to determine (a) the spectral fluence of incident photons and electrons in water around a gold NP under charged particle equilibrium conditions and (b) the density of ionization clusters produced on average as well as conditional on the occurrence of at least one interaction in the NP using Associated Volume Clustering. Absorbed dose was determined for comparison with a recent benchmark intercomparison. Reported quantities are normalized to primary fluence, allowing to establish a connection to macroscopic dosimetric quantities.Main results.The modification of the electron spectral fluence by the gold NP is minor and mainly occurs at low energies. The net fluence of electrons emitted from the NP is dominated by electrons resulting from photon interactions. Similar to the known dose enhancement, increased ionization clustering is limited to a distance from the NP surface of up to200nm. The number of clusters per energy imparted is increased at distances of up to150nm, and accordingly the enhancement in clustering notably surpasses that of dose enhancement. Smaller NPs cause noticeable peaks in the conditional frequency of clusters between50nm-100nmfrom the NP surface.Significance.This work shows that low energy electrons emitted by NPs lead to an increase of ionization clustering in their vicinity exceeding that of energy imparted. While the electron component of the radiation field plays an important role in determining the background contribution to ionization clustering and energy imparted, the dosimetric effects of NPs are governed by the interplay of secondary electron production by photon interaction and their ability to leave the NP.

Extraction of Molecular-Frame Electron-Ion Differential Scattering Cross Sections Based on Elliptical Laser-Induced Electron Diffraction.

We extracted the molecular-frame elastic differential cross sections (MFDCSs) for electrons scattering from N_{2}^{+} based on elliptical laser-induced electron diffraction (ELIED), wherein the structural evolution is initialized by the same tunneling ionization and probed by incident angle-resolved laser-induced electron diffraction imaging. To establish ELIED, an intuitive interpretation of the ellipticity-dependent rescattering electron momentum distributions was first provided by analyzing the transverse momentum distribution. It was shown that the incident angle of the laser-induced returning electrons could be tuned within 20° by varying the ellipticity and handedness of the driving laser pulses. Accordingly, the incident angle-resolved DCSs of returning electrons for spherically symmetric targets (Xe^{+} and Ar^{+}) were successfully extracted as a proof-of-principle for ELIED. The MFDCSs for N_{2}^{+} were experimentally obtained at incident angles of 4° and 7°, which were well reproduced by the simulations. The ELIED approach is the only successful method so far for obtaining incident angle-resolved ionic MFDCS, which provides a new sensitive observable for the transient structure retrieval of N_{2}^{+}. Our results suggest that the ELIED has the potential to extract the structural tomographic information of polyatomic molecules with femtosecond and subangstrom spatiotemporal resolutions that can enable the visualization of the nuclear motions in complex chemical reactions as well as chiral recognition.

Effects of sputtering pressure on microstructure and secondary electron emission properties of AlN film prepared by magnetron sputtering

In this paper, aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films were prepared by reactive radio-frequency magnetron sputtering at different sputtering pressures and the crystalline structure, surface morphology and secondary electron emission (SEE) properties of the AlN films were studied in detail. The experimental results reveal that AlN films present the preferred orientation of a-axis (100), and the grain size and surface roughness of the film decrease with the increase of sputtering pressure. Additionally, the SEE coefficient of the film reaches a maximum of 4.3 at 200 eV when the sputtering pressure is 0.55 Pa and is relatively stable under the continuous bombardment of an incident electron with the energy of 200 eV. Thus, the AlN thin film prepared under the optimized sputtering pressure has a relatively high and stable coefficient at a low incident electron energy, which promotes its potential application in the high-gain and long-life electron multipliers.

Electron impact excitation of bismuth

Abstract The present study investigates the electron impact excitation of bismuth from the ground state 6p3 4S3/2 to the excited state 6p27s 4P1/2. Motivated by the latest measurements by Marinković et al [J. Phys. B, 49 23 520 (2016)], relativistic distorted wave calculations are performed to obtain the differential and integrated cross sections for incident electron energies at 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 eVs. These results are compared with the available experimental data and a good agreement is observed. Our results represent the first theoretical work to provide such a comparison. Additionally, we report the generalized oscillator strengths derived from our calculated differential cross sections.

Charge Phenomena in the Elastic Backscattering of Electrons from Insulating Polymers.

Elastic peak electron spectroscopy (EPES) analyzes the line shape of the elastic peak. The reduction in energy of the elastic peak electrons is the result of energy transfer to the target atoms, a phenomenon known as recoil energy. EPES differs from other electron spectroscopies in its unique ability to identify hydrogen in polymers and hydrogenated carbon-based materials. This feature is particularly noteworthy as lighter elements exhibit stronger energy shifts. The energy difference between the positions of the elastic peak of carbon and the elastic peak of hydrogen tends to increase as the kinetic energy of the incident electrons increases. During electron irradiation of an insulating polymer, if the number of secondary electrons emitted from the surface is less than the number of electrons absorbed in the sample, the surface floats energetically until it stabilizes at a potential energy eVs. As a result, the interaction energy changes and modifies the energy difference between the elastic peaks of hydrogen and carbon. In this study, the charge effects are evaluated using the Monte Carlo method to simulate the EPES spectra of electrons interacting with polystyrene and polyethylene.

Single electron charge spectra of 8-inch high-collection-efficiency MCP-PMTs

The microchannel plates (MCP) can serve as the electron amplifier of the photomultiplier tubes (PMT). The collection efficiency of the newly developed 8-inch MCP-PMT for the Jinping Neutrino Experiment is maximized thanks to the high-secondary-emission coating. The resulting single electron response (SER) charge distribution deviates from the Gaussian distribution in large charge regions. To understand the nature of the jumbo-charged SER, we designed a voltage-division experiment to quantify the dependence of the MCP gain on the energy of incident electrons. Combining the relationship with the Furman probabilistic model, we reproduced the SER charge spectra by introducing an additional amplification stage on the input electrode of the first MCP. Our results favor a Gamma-Tweedie mixture to describe the SER charge spectra of the MCP-PMTs.

Visualizing micro leakage position by dynamic measurement in operando hydrogen microscope

We developed an operando hydrogen microscope (OHM) to determine where in materials hydrogen is trapped and causes embrittlement, and the location of hydrogen leak from gas lines, by hydrogen visualization. In the OHM, hydrogen atoms that permeate through a sample are ionized by incident electrons on the sample surface, desorbed into an ultra-high vacuum environment, and then detected. We visualized the surface hydrogen distribution from the hydrogen desorption position. It is also possible to visualize atoms adsorbed from gas phase, as well as gases that leak rather than permeate. The probability that a gas will be adsorbed depends on the substance. The amount of adsorbate increases at a site of locally high pressure. We created guidelines for background evaluation and quantitative analysis of leakage amount under the experimental conditions. Therefore, by visualizing the distribution of adsorbed substances using OHM, we can identify the location of a leak. We visualized a controlled leak of hydrogen in a sintered stainless steel body.

Spin-dependent shot noise in 8-Pmmn borophene based-superlattice

The effect of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction on the shot noise, spin/valley polarization in 8-Pmmn borophene-based superlattice are studied theoretically, by applying the transfer-matrix approach. The spin-dependent transmission probability can be easily controlled by the number of superlattice barriers, the strength of the Rashba, and the incident electron angle. The Fano factor without spin rotation as well as with spin rotation shows an oscillatory pattern versus the strength of the Rashba, and the oscillatory behavior becomes more pronounced as the number of barriers increases. Also, the Fano factor shows a strong dependence on the superlattice direction and number of barriers. The spin and valley polarizations can be easily controlled by the number of barriers and the direction of superlattice. Our findings in this work could provide useful for valleytronics/spintronics systems based on the 8-Pmmn borophene.

Investigation on the intensity contrast of Kα line emission from laser–matter interactions

The intensity contrast and its angular distribution of Kα line emission originated from the difference of angular distributions of Kα and bremsstrahlung emissions from copper foil targets bombarded by electrons similar to the hot electrons generated in laser–matter interactions are investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. For mono-energetic electron incidences, a higher contrast Kα emission is generated at large detection angles relative to the incident electron direction and for higher electron energy. The Kα emission contrast is decreased with the increase in target thickness. When the areal density of targets is fixed, the contrast is almost unchanged with the change of target density and thickness. For incident electrons with a Boltzmann energy distribution, a higher contrast Kα emission can also be generated at large detection angles and for higher electron temperatures, but the contrast is lower compared to that for mono-energetic electron incidences, and it is changed only slightly with the increase in target thickness. These results help to understand the contrast of Kα emissions in previous experiments. Suggestions are proposed for future laser–matter interaction experiments for higher contrast Kα emissions.

Electron-induced hydrogen desorption from selected polymers (polyacetylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, and polymethyl-methacrylate)

Elastic Peak Electron Spectroscopy, abbreviated as EPES, involves the analysis of the line shape found in the elastic peak. The reduction in the energy of electrons within the elastic peak is a result of energy being transferred to the target atoms, a phenomenon referred to as recoil energy. EPES distinguishes itself among electron spectroscopies by its unique ability to identify hydrogen in polymers and hydrogenated carbon-based materials. This distinctiveness is particularly notable because lighter elements demonstrate more pronounced energy shifts. The detection of hydrogen in polymers entails measuring the energy difference between the positions of the carbon (or carbon+oxygen) elastic peak and the hydrogen elastic peak. This difference tends to increase as the kinetic energy of the incident electrons rises. Concerning hydrogen peak intensity, electron beam-induced damage represents a critical aspect of EPES, as hydrogen desorbs under electron irradiation. In this study, the Monte Carlo method was employed to simulate EPES spectra involving electrons interacting with polyacetylene (C2H2), polyethylene (C2H4), polystyrene (C8H8), and polymethyl-methacrylate (C5H8O2) and to evaluate electron-induced hydrogen desorption from these polymers.

Coulomb effect on elastic electron scattering by hydrogen atom and hydrogen-like ions in their metastable 2s state in the 511–770 KeV energy range

This paper reports on a study investigating the elastic scattering of hydrogen atoms in their metastable state (2S-2S) when subjected to electron impact, with a focus on the Coulomb effect within an energy range spanning from 511 keV to 770 keV . The analysis employs semi-relativistic wave functions to depict the hydrogen states. The validity of using Darwin wave functions is confirmed by ensuring that the condition Zα << 1 is met, where α represents the structure constant. Both incident and scattered free electrons are described using Dirac spinors. Notably, the semi-relativistic calculations converge with those of the non-relativistic case at low electron velocities. Additionally, in the presence of the Coulomb effect, the electron wave function is approximated by a Dirac function modulated by the confluent hypergeometric function. The paper presents the relativistic differential cross-section (RDCS) as a function of the final scattering angle for various energies of the incident electron, revealing intriguing insights into diffusion probabilities in specific directions. Moreover, the impact of the atomic number Z on the elastic scattering of hydrogen atoms and hydrogen-like ions by electron impact under the influence of the Coulomb effect is thoroughly examined.

Optimization of photoneutron source for use in subcritical reactors

This work is an effort to maximize the number of output neutrons of a photoneutron target for 100 MeV incident electrons. The work steps were; to select the appropriate material, select the appropriate shape, and find the optimized dimensions. The simulations of this work were done with MCNPX2.6 simulation code. At first, U-235 was selected as the best material for the target, among some heavy atoms from the number of outlet neutron point of view. Then the best shape for the target was selected from geometric shapes that have been considered for the target and the dimensions of the target were optimized. After these parts, the energy spectrum of outlet neutrons was estimated and after that, the deposited energy of neutrons, electrons, and photons in the target was estimated and drowned with Tec plot.