Surface sensitivity of elastic peak electron spectroscopy

摘要

New theoretical model describing the sampling depth of elastic peak electron spectroscopy (EPES) has been proposed. Surface sensitivity of this technique can be generally identified with the maximum depth reached by trajectories of elastically backscattered electrons. A parameter called the penetration depth distribution function (PDDF) has been proposed for this description. Two further parameters are descendant from this definition: the mean penetration depth (MPD) and the information depth (ID). From the proposed theory, relatively simple analytical expressions describing the above parameters can be derived. Although the Monte Carlo simulations can be effectively used to estimate the sampling depth of EPES, this approach may require a considerable amount of computations. In contrast, the analytical model proposed here (AN) is very fast and provides the parameters PDDF, MPD and ID that very well compare with results of MC simulations. As follows from detailed comparisons performed for four elements (Al, Ni, Pd and Au), the AN model practically reproduced complicated emission angle dependences of the MPDs and the IDs, correctly indicating numerous maximum and minimum positions. In the energy range from 200 eV to 5 keV, the averaged percentage differences between MPDs obtained from the MC and the AN models were close to 4%. An important conclusion resulting from the present studies refers to the procedure of determination of the inelastic mean free path (IMFP) from EPES. Frequently, the analyzed sample is deposited as a thin overlayer on a smooth substrate. From an analysis of the presently obtained IDs, is follows that 99% of trajectories in analyzed experimental configurations reaches depth not exceeding 2.39 in units of IMFP. Thus, one can postulate that a safe minimum thickness of an overlayer should be larger than about 3 IMFPs. For example, the minimum thickness of an Al overlayer shoud be about 8 nm at 5000 eV. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.