Secondary Electron Emission Characteristics Research Articles

Low secondary electron emission characteristics of carbon nano-onion coating via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Suppression of secondary electron emission (SEE) by surface coating technology on metal materials has important applications in many fields, for which the investigation on new coating materials with low secondary electron yield (SEY) is desired significantly. In this study, the maximum SEY of nickel (Ni) substrate was reduced from 2.30 to 0.75 (67 % reduction) after a carbon nano-onion (CNO) coating prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), and the SEY less than 1 means that some problems caused by secondary electron (SE) multiplication on metal materials could be solved completely. Various measurements, material characterization and CASINO Monte Carlo model simulation indicated that the low SEY characteristic of CNO coating could be attributed to two main mechanisms: Firstly, true SEs emitted from the surface of CNO could be reabsorbed by the adjacent CNO attributed to the micrometer scale undulating structure formed by the accumulation of CNO on the coating surface; Secondly, the defects degree of CNO directly affects the emission of true SE, which plays the role of low-energy electron capturing trap. This discovery can provide a reference for future coating production.

An extension of first principle combined Monte Carlo method to simulate secondary electron yield of anisotropic crystal Al2O3

An extension of a first-principle combined Monte Carlo method is proposed in this work to obtain the secondary electron emission characteristics of anisotropic crystal Al2O3. Unlike isotropic crystal Cu, density functional theory calculations reveal that the q-dependent energy loss function of Al2O3 in all directions is different. Therefore, an interpolation algorithm is introduced in the Monte Carlo method to determine the loss of energy and inelastic mean free path of electrons. The simulation results are in good agreement with experimental data. This method can be further used to simulate the secondary emission yield of other anisotropic crystal materials.

Secondary electron emission characteristics of alumina coating on metallic substrate prepared by atomic layer deposition

The main objective of this study is to research the secondary electron emission characteristic of different thickness alumina coatings which are prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique on several metallic secondary-emitting materials. The experimental results reveal that secondary electron yield (SEY) property concerned with the metal work function and the surface topography of alumina coatings when coating thickness is in the nanometer level. In addition, after utilizing SEY measurement setup and pulsed electron gun, the SEY curves of metallic substrates with different thickness alumina coatings and primary energy (PE) of incident electron could be measured. From an analysis of the SEY curves, some key parameters related to secondary electron emission characteristics such as the maximum SEY value and its corresponding PE of incident electron, and the penetration depth of incident electron can be obtained. Furthermore, basing on the ALD technique and on the SEY results of stainless steel substrate coated with 80-cycle alumina thin film, a novel 18-stage discrete dynode electron multiplier (DDEM) was fabricated and tested. The gain of DDEM 1.6× 106 was obtained.

Study on Secondary Electron Yield of Dielectric Materials

The secondary electron emission coefficient of dielectric materials will have an important impact on the performance of electronic devices and equipment. In order to understand the secondary electron emission coefficient of common dielectric materials, the collection electrode negative bias method is introduced in this study. First, the measurement method of secondary electron emission coefficient of dielectric materials is analyzed, and 20 common dielectric materials are introduced, the secondary electron emission coefficients of 20 kinds of common dielectric materials were measured and analyzed, which laid the foundation for the subsequent application of dielectric materials. The results show that among common dielectric materials, the secondary electron emission coefficients of alumina, silica and muscovite are relatively high, while those of polyimide, polycarbonate and polyester are relatively low; The surface roughness of the material will also have an important impact on the secondary electron emission coefficient. With the gradual increase of the surface roughness of the material, the undulation of the material surface will have a shielding effect and absorption effect on the secondary electrons, which will eventually lead to the gradual reduction of the secondary electron emission coefficient of the material. The research results can provide data support for the establishment of the database of secondary electron emission characteristics of common dielectric materials.

Characteristics of secondary electron emission from few layer graphene on silicon (111) surface

As a typical two-dimensional (2D) coating material, graphene has been utilized to effectively reduce secondary electron emission from the surface. Nevertheless, the microscopic mechanism and the dominant factor of secondary electron emission suppression remain controversial. Since traditional models rely on the data of experimental bulk properties which are scarcely appropriate to the 2D coating situation, this paper presents the first-principles-based numerical calculations of the electron interaction and emission process for monolayer and multilayer graphene on silicon (111) substrate. By using the anisotropic energy loss for the coating graphene, the electron transport process can be described more realistically. The real physical electron interactions, including the elastic scattering of electron–nucleus, inelastic scattering of the electron–extranuclear electron, and electron–phonon effect, are considered and calculated by using the Monte Carlo method. The energy level transition theory-based first-principles method and the full Penn algorithm are used to calculate the energy loss function during the inelastic scattering. Variations of the energy loss function and interface electron density differences for 1 to 4 layer graphene coating GoSi are calculated, and their inner electron distributions and secondary electron emissions are analyzed. Simulation results demonstrate that the dominant factor of the inhibiting of secondary electron yield (SEY) of GoSi is to induce the deeper electrons in the internal scattering process. In contrast, a low surface potential barrier due to the positive deviation of electron density difference at monolayer GoSi interface in turn weakens the suppression of secondary electron emission of the graphene layer. Only when the graphene layer number is 3, does the contribution of surface work function to the secondary electron emission suppression appear to be slightly positive.

Seesaw-type modulation of secondary electron emission characteristics of polytetrafluoroethylene-MgO composite coating

The electrostatic discharge (ESD) from polymer insulators is one of the environment-related anomalies on spacecraft. Theoretically, to mitigate the ESD effects, we could modulate the secondary electron yield (SEY, σ) close to 1 in the entire energy range, suppressing surface charges. However, no single polymer insulator has been reported to achieve this seesaw-type modulation of SEY. Here, we exploringly designed and prepared MgO particles doped polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composite coating to achieve this goal, which exhibits not only the reduced SEY characteristic of the microstructured PTFE coating at low energy but also the enhanced SEY characteristic of the double-layer structure of PTFE and MgO at high energy. The simulation and experiment results demonstrate that MgO particles doped PTFE coating achieves this seesaw-type modulation of SEY. The optimal MgO concentration is 20%, where the maximum SEY (σmax) changes from 2.0 to 1.1; the SEY at 10 keV (σ10k) changes from 0.6 to 0.8, and the higher energy of the SEY equal to 1 (Ep2) increases from 4.5 to 6.5 keV. The discharge test of the microstrip antennas with PTFE-MgO composite coating in a scanning electron microscope verifies the role of the seesaw-type SEY modulation in surface charge suppression. This study supplies an essential reference for suppressing surface charges on vacuum electronics based on modulation of secondary electron emission characteristics.

Influence of Film Coating Thickness on Secondary Electron Emission Characteristics of Non-Evaporable Getter Ti-Hf-V-Zr Coated Open-Cell Copper Foam Substrates.

The application of vacuum materials with low secondary electron yield (SEY) is one of the effective methods to mitigate the electron cloud (EC). In this study, the Ti-Hf-V-Zr non-evaporable getter (NEG) film was deposited on open-cell copper foams with different pore sizes for the suppression of electron multipacting effects. Besides, the influence of the film thickness on the secondary electron emission (SEE) characteristics of Ti-Hf-V-Zr NEG film-coated open-cell copper foam substrates was investigated for the first time. The results highlighted that all uncoated and NEG-coated foamed porous copper substrates achieved a low SEY (<1.2), which reduced at least 40% compared to the traditional copper plates, and the foamed porous coppers with 1.34-μm-thick NEG coating had the lowest SEY. Moreover, the surface chemistry and the morphological and structural properties of foamed porous coppers of different pore sizes with and without Ti-Hf-V-Zr NEG films were systematically analyzed.

Secondary Electron Emission Characteristics of Epoxy Resins with Nano-silica Addition and Thermal Treatment

Secondary Electron Emission Characteristics of Epoxy Resins with Nano-silica Addition and Thermal Treatment

Effect of Cu doping on the secondary electron yield of carbon films on Ag-plated aluminum alloy

Reducing the secondary electron yield (SEY) of Ag-plated aluminum alloy is important for high-power microwave components. In this work, Cu doped carbon films are prepared and the secondary electron emission characteristics are studied systematically. The secondary electron coefficient δ max of carbon films increases with the Cu contents increasing at first, and then decreases to 1.53 at a high doping ratio of 0.645. From the viewpoint of surface structure, the higher the content of Cu is, the rougher the surface is, since more cluster particles appear on the surface due to the small solid solubility of Cu in the amorphous carbon network. However, from viewpoint of the electronic structure, the reduction of the sp2 hybrid bonds will increase the SEY effect as the content of Cu increases, due to the decreasing probability of collision with free electrons. Thus, the two mechanisms would compete and coexist to affect the SEY characteristics in Cu doped carbon films.

Investigation on secondary electron emission characteristics of double-layer structures

Secondary electron (SE) emission (SEE) from material surfaces is a frequent phenomenon in space and vacuum environments. SEE modulation is important since it governs the performance of some devices such as electronic multipliers or induces some detrimental effects such as multipactors. Surface coating has been reported to modulate SEE effectively, whereas SEE behaviors of coating structures are not clearly understood yet, and the appropriate theory to describe SEE characteristics quantitatively for coating structures is less developed so far. Here, we have prepared four alumina coatings possessing various thicknesses to research the SEE characteristics of coating structures and have shown how the coating thickness affects the SEE behaviors. Besides, by considering coating/substrate as an ideal double-layer structure, we have derived several equations to describe the producing, transmitting, and escaping processes of excited inner SEs and finally constructed a unidimensional SEE model for double-layer structures. The model is applicable to reveal the dependence of true SE yield (TSEY) on the top and bottom layers’ physical properties and estimate TSEY proportions contributed by the top and bottom layers at random energy points. By employing the concept, SEE characteristics of Al2O3/Si, MgO/Si, and TiO2/Si double-layer structures have been quantitatively interpreted. Moreover, the abnormal SEY curve with a double-hump shape, which is induced by the peak position distinction of SiO2/Si structures, can also be explained. This work is of great significance to comprehend TSEY modulating regularities of various double-layer structures applied in surface engineering.

Characteristics of secondary electron emission and multipactor from a nested microtrap structure surface

It is known that an appropriate surface structure can suppress the secondary electron emission as a result of the receded multipactor in a spacecraft microwave component. On the other hand, the multiplier effect caused by electron re-entrance in ordinary surface structures can degrade the suppression of secondary electron emission. The present paper concerns our proposition of a new type of two-level nested microtrap structure surface able to effectively inhibit the generation of the secondary electrons inside the trap structure to achieve better suppression of the total secondary electron emission on the surface. The surface of a two-level nested microtrap array structure was obtained by lithography, stripping, dry etching, and Ag sputtering. Experimental tests were conducted on the two proposed nested structures with different sizes. The test results show that inhibition effects of the two structures have been improved by 100% and 144% compared with those of the traditional single-hole trap structure. The secondary electron yield on the bottom surface of the rough nested trap due to Ag sputtering is higher than that of the ideal regular structure simulated by Monte Carlo. In addition, the larger depth-to-width ratio of the nested trap can inhibit the multi-generation multiplication of electrons in the trap more effectively and further improve the inhibition effect on secondary electrons. For an impedance transformer, the proposed two size nested structure surface can increase the multipactor power threshold by about 346% and 386%. This method plus the nested microtrap structure can achieve a better secondary electron emission suppression effect and further improve the multipactor threshold of space microwave components.

Secondary electron emission yield from vertical graphene nanosheets by helicon plasma deposition

The secondary electron emission yields of materials depend on the geometries of their surface structures. In this paper, a method of depositing vertical graphene nanosheet (VGN) on the surface of the material is proposed, and the secondary electron emission (SEE) characteristics for the VGN structure are studied. The COMSOL simulation and the scanning electron microscope (SEM) image analysis are carried out to study the secondary electron yield (SEY). The effect of aspect ratio and packing density of VGN on SEY under normal incident condition are studied. The results show that the VGN structure has a good effect on suppressing SEE.

Secondary electron emission characteristics of the Al2O3/MgO double-layer structure prepared by atomic layer deposition

As a secondary electron emission layer, an Al2O3/MgO double-layer structure is fabricated by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology. The thickness range from 1 nm to 4 nm of the top Al2O3 layer deposited on 20 nm MgO creates a double-layer. The morphology of the cross section, element distribution, surface roughness, X-ray diffraction, and secondary electron yield (SEY) values were measured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and secondary electron emission (SEE) measurement systems. The SEE characteristics of the MgO single layer, Al2O3 single layer and MgO/Al2O3 double-layer were measured. The maximum SEY of a single MgO layer reached 6.2@600 eV, and the maximum SEY of a single Al2O3 layer reached 3.92@400 eV. The SEY of the Al2O3/MgO double-layer decreased when the Al2O3 thickness ranged from 1 nm to 4 nm, and the SEY reduction value of the double-layer decreased as the Al2O3 thickness increased. Finally, Dionne's semiempirical SEE model was employed to explain the SEE yield of the prepared composite film structures. These results are useful for depositing a secondary electron emission layer in the channel of microchannel plates.

Theoretical and experimental investigation of secondary electron emission characteristics of ALD-ZnO conductive films

Microchannel plates (MCPs) are widely utilized as key device components in various photomultipliers; however, the performance of MCPs cannot be further improved by traditional processing. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a promising route to prepare a composite conductive layer and secondary electron emission (SEE) layer structure on the inner wall of the MCP. Moreover, ZnO is an essential component of a composite conductive layer, which is located at the bottom of the SEE layer and significantly influences the SEE coefficient, which, in turn, affects the gain performance of MCPs. Herein, ALD is used to deposit different thicknesses of ZnO films (1–50 nm) on an Si substrate, resulting in an ZnO/Si double-layer film structure. The relationship between the SEE coefficient and the primary electron energy of ZnO films with different thicknesses was established. The maximum secondary electron yield value of 2.04 is achieved at a film thickness of 30 nm. Moreover, Dionne's SEE model and theory of semiconductors are used to simulate and verify the experimental results. These results provide useful guidelines for the development of ALD-MCPs.

Theoretical and experimental investigation of secondary electron emission characteristics of MgO coating produced by atomic layer deposition

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is utilized to prepare thin MgO coatings 1–50 nm on Si substrate. In addition, secondary electron emission (SEE) coefficient of MgO/Si double-layered structure is evaluated as a function of coating thickness and primary electron (PE) energy. After neutralizing the surface of test specimen, we have accurately analyzed the relationship between secondary electron yield (SEY) of MgO coating and PE energy. Meanwhile, SEE characteristics of MgO/Si double-layered structure have been systematically analyzed. A maximum SEY value of 6.15 has been achieved at coating thickness of 30 nm and PE energy of 550 eV. Furthermore, theoretical model is established by using Dionne's SEE model to analyze experimentally measured SEY data, demonstrating consistency between experimentally measured and theoretically calculated results. This work demonstrates that SEE level of MgO coating can be optimized by tuning coating thickness and presents novel insights into SEE characteristics of composite materials. Those results can serve as a baseline for further design and fabrication of a wide array of electronic devices.

Research On Secondary Electron Emission Characteristics of Diamond-Like Carbon Thin Films

In modern particle accelerators, the build-up of electron cloud is a main limiting factor for the achievement of high-quality beam. Among the techniques to mitigate it, coating the internal walls of the beam pipes with a thin film which has a low secondary electron yield (SEY) is considered to be one of the most effective means. From several earlier studies, it was found that diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films are potential coatings. This paper is mainly about the research on secondary electron emission characteristics of DLC thin films. The secondary electron emission (SEE) tests were done at temperature of 298 K and vacuum pressure of 2 × 10–9 Torr. Here, we obtained the characteristics of the SEE from DLC film coatings with different thickness under ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) conditions. The maximum secondary electron yield (SEY), δmax, of the DLC thin films under different primary electron doses were also obtained, respectively.

Study of secondary electron emission from semiconductors induced by electrons from 20 eV to 800 eV and surface state of semiconductors

Based on processes and characteristics of secondary electron emission (SEE), experimental data and the relations among parameters of secondary electron yield from semiconductors δ, the formula for δ in the range of 20 eV ≤ Epo ≤ 800 eV of semiconductors with Epom ≤ 800 eV as a function of Epo, Epom, atomic number Z and maximum δ (δm) was deduced and proved experimentally, where Epo and Epom are incident energy of primary electron and the Epo of δm, respectively. From the existing formula and the relation among Z, mean escape depth of secondary electrons emitted from semiconductors and primary range R at Epom deduced in this study, the formula for R in the range of 150 eV ≤ Epo ≤ 800 eV in monocrystalline semiconductors with Epom ≤ 800 eV, χ ≥ 0.6 eV and Eg ≥ 0.6 eV was successfully deduced, where χ is original electron affinity, Eg is the width of forbidden band. The method of calculating B(χreal, Eg) of semiconductor with Epom ≤ 800 eV, χreal ≥ 0.5 eV and Eg ≥ 0.6 eV and that of calculating B of semiconductor with Epom ≤ 800 eV were presented, respectively; Where B is the probability that an internal secondary electron escapes into vacuum upon reaching the surface of semiconductor, and the B(χreal, Eg) is the B relative to semiconductor with Eg and real electron affinity χreal. It can be concluded that the two methods are correct. From the analysis of calculated B, experimental Epom and relations among parameters of SEE, it can be concluded that this paper can research the surface state of semiconductor with Epom ≤ 800 eV by SEE.

Secondary electron emission characteristics of Al2O3 coatings prepared by atomic layer deposition

Secondary electron emission (SEE) plays a crucial role in the gain performance of devices, such as electron multipliers and microchannel plates (MCPs). Gain performance could be improved by increasing the secondary electron yield (SEY) of device surface. Al2O3 coating is an ideal material for SEE, benefiting from its high SEY. The Al2O3 coating deposited on inner device walls by atomic layer deposition (ALD) can improve the gain performance of devices. In this study, the SEE characteristics of Al2O3 coatings were investigated experimentally. A series of Al2O3 coatings with thicknesses of 1-30 nm were prepared on Si substrate through the ALD method. Then, the SEY of the coatings were quantified as a function of primary electron energy in the range of 100∼1500 eV. Furthermore, an equation describing the true SEY as a function of thickness was established by applying theory of Dionne’s SEE model. This work presents potential approach for controlling the SEE level of Al2O3 coatings through thickness adjustment and is crucial for comprehending the SEE of composite materials.

Measurement of yield and spectrum of secondary electron emission and their characteristics under modification of conductive materials.

Surface modification technique of secondary electron emission (SEE) characteristics of materials, which is utilized to suppress or promote the SEE from material surface under electron bombardment, has extensive applications in a variety of fields. Measurement of the secondary electron yield (SEY) and the secondary electron spectrum (SES) before and after surface modification is essential for the evaluation of effectiveness and the investigation of mechanism of material modification. A SEY and SES measurement system is reported in this article. The comparative measurements of the total SEY, the true SEY, the backscattered electron yield, and the SES of nickel and free-standing vertical graphene, which was grown in situ on the surface of nickel substrate by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, were performed using this system. The measurement results demonstrate that this system could facilitate the study of surface modification on the SEE characteristics of conductive materials.

THEORETICAL RESEARCH OF SECONDARY ELECTRON EMISSION FROM NEGATIVE ELECTRON AFFINITY SEMICONDUCTORS

Based on primary range [Formula: see text], relationships among parameters of secondary electron yield [Formula: see text] and the processes and characteristics of secondary electron emission (SEE) from negative electron affinity (NEA) semiconductors, the universal formulas for [Formula: see text] at [Formula: see text] and at [Formula: see text] for NEA semiconductors were deduced, respectively; where [Formula: see text] is incident energy of primary electron. According to the characteristics of SEE from NEA semiconductors with [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], deduced universal formulas for [Formula: see text] at [Formula: see text] and at [Formula: see text] for NEA semiconductors and experimental data, special formulas for [Formula: see text] at 0.5[Formula: see text] of several NEA semiconductors with [Formula: see text] were deduced and proved to be true experimentally, respectively; where [Formula: see text] is the [Formula: see text] at which [Formula: see text] reaches maximum secondary electron yield. It can be concluded that the formula for [Formula: see text] of NEA semiconductors with [Formula: see text] was deduced and could be used to calculate [Formula: see text], and that the method of calculating the 1/[Formula: see text] of NEA semiconductors with [Formula: see text] is plausible; where [Formula: see text] is the probability that an internal secondary electron escapes into vacuum upon reaching the surface of emitter, and 1/[Formula: see text] is mean escape depth of secondary electron.