Date Awarded

1997

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Physics

Abstract

Absolute yields of negative ions and secondary electrons resulting from collisions of positive sodium ions (Na{dollar}\sp{lcub}+{rcub}){dollar} with polycrystalline aluminum (Al) and molybdenum (Mo) surfaces and the Mo (100) surface have been measured as a function of the oxygen (O) coverage, from none up to several monolayers, for impact energies, E {dollar}<{dollar} 500 eV. Negative oxygen ions (O{dollar}\sp{lcub}-{rcub}){dollar} are found to be the dominant sputtered negative ions and for the three surfaces at all O coverages and Na{dollar}\sp{lcub}+{rcub}{dollar} impact energies. The O{dollar}\sp{lcub}-{rcub}{dollar} and secondary electron yields share a common impact energy threshold at {dollar}\rm E\sb{lcub}th{rcub}\approx 50{dollar} eV, and both have a strong dependence on the oxygen coverage of the surface.;The kinetic energy distributions of the secondary electrons and sputtered O{dollar}\sp{lcub}-{rcub}{dollar} were determined as functions of O coverages and impact energies. The O{dollar}\sp{lcub}-{rcub}{dollar} distributions are characterized by a narrow, low energy peak (at {dollar}\sim{dollar}1-2 eV) followed by a low level, high energy tail. The secondary electrons have a narrow (FWHM {dollar}\sim{dollar} 1-2 eV) kinetic energy distribution, centered essentially at the same most probable kinetic energy as the ions. The shapes of the respective distributions and the most probable kinetic energies are essentially invariant with the impact energy, O coverage and the metal surface.;The results were analyzed in terms of conventional collision cascade model, but the calculation could not be fitted to the experimental results. An electronic excitation mechanism is proposed to augment the collision cascade and to provide a mechanism for secondary electron emission. In the model, adsorbed O, which resides on the surface essentially as O{dollar}\sp{lcub}-{rcub},{dollar} is collisionally excited into an (MO{dollar}\sp{lcub}-{rcub})\sp*{dollar} repulsive state, and as the O{dollar}\sp{lcub}-{rcub}{dollar} exits the surface along the surface potential energy curve, it can decay by emission of an electron to the metal or to the vacuum, or it can survive as an ion. The parameters of this model can be adjusted such that the calculated kinetic energy distribution, together with that of the collision cascade, can reasonably reproduce the experimental observations for the ions and provide a reasonable fit to the corresponding electron kinetic energy distributions as well.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-yt1x-3m56

Rights

© The Author

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