Stability of trapped charges in sapphires and alumina ceramics: Evaluation by secondary electron emission

Abstract

The stability of trapped charges in sapphires and alumina ceramics is characterized via an experimental parameter expressing the variation of the secondary electron emission yield between two electron injections performed in a scanning electron microscope. Two types of sapphires and polycrystalline alumina, which differ mainly by their impurity content, are investigated in the temperature range 300–663K. The stable trapping behavior in sapphires is attributed to trapping in different defects, whose nature depends on the purity level. In alumina ceramics, the ability to trap charges in a stable way is stronger in samples of high impurity content. In the low impurity samples, stable trapping is promoted when the grain diameter decreases, whereas the reverse is observed in high impurity materials. These behaviors can stem from a gettering effect occurring during sintering. The strong dependence of the variation of the secondary electron emission yield on the grain diameter and impurities enables a scaling of the stable trapping ability of alumina materials.