Plasmon-assisted electron-electron collisions at metallic surfaces

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical model to analyze how fast electrons induce secondary electron emission from metallic surfaces, considering plasmon effects and comparing predictions with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a new theoretical framework for electron-electron collisions at metallic surfaces, incorporating plasmon modes and screening models.

Findings

Different screening models affect electron-pair energy distributions.

Surface and bulk plasmon modes leave distinct signatures in emission spectra.

Theoretical results show good agreement with experimental data for aluminum.

Abstract

We present a theoretical treatment for the ejection of a secondary electron from a clean metallic surface induced by the impact of a fast primary electron. Assuming a direct scattering between the incident, primary electron and the electron in a metal, we calculate the electron-pair energy distributions at the surfaces of Al and Be. Different models for the screening of the electron-electron interaction are examined and the footprints of the surface and the bulk plasmon modes are determined and analyzed. The formulated theoretical approach is compared with the available experimental data on the electron-pair emission from Al.