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Angular distribution of electrons elastically backscattered from surfaces
Author(s) -
Dwyer V. M.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
surface and interface analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1096-9918
pISSN - 0142-2421
DOI - 10.1002/sia.740200605
Subject(s) - electron , distribution (mathematics) , materials science , physics , optics , nuclear physics , mathematics , mathematical analysis
The experimentally measured angular distribution of electrons elastically backscattered from polycrystalline or amorphous solids exhibts a strong resemblance to the differential cross‐section for single‐atom elastic scattering. Consequently most analytical attempts to describe the problem, which involve some simplifying approximations to this scattering cross‐section, are inadequate in the modelling of backscattered electrons. The present paper represents an attempt to derive a simple analytical approximation that is able to describe such events. This is done by including the first scatteing event exactly and including multiple scattering events using a sort of ‘rectilinear + diffusion’ theory, which has proved to be successful for modelling the depth distribution function used in Auger and x‐ray spectroscopies. For the cases considered (Ag, Al and Cu at 1 kV), the results compare very well with both experimental data and recent Monte Carlo calculations.