Angular Distribution of Scattered Electron and Medium Energy Electron Spectroscopy for Metals

Abstract

The angular distribution (AD) of scattered electrons produced by medium energy incident electrons ( E P =50∼300 eV) from polycrystalline Ti, Fe, Ni, Cu and Au were obtained by the angle-resolved medium energy electron spectrometer. The AD of the energy loss peaks are similar figures to AD of the elastically reflected electron peaks. Therefore, the exchanged electrons produced by the knock-on collision between the incident electrons and those of metals without momentum transfer are observed as the energy loss spectra (ELS). This interpretation differs from the inconsequent interpretation by the dielectric theory or the interband transition. The information depth and penetration length are obtained from AD of the Auger electron peaks. The contribution of the surface to spectra is 3% at the maximum for E P =50 eV. The true secondary peaks representing the secondary electron emission spectroscopy (SES) are caused by the emissions of the energetic electrons (k T e ≧4 eV), and SES is the inversion of ELS. The established fundamental view is that the medium energy electron spectra represent the total bulk density of states.