Surface excitations in the modelling of electron transport for electron- beam-induced deposition experiments

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of including surface excitations in electron transport models for FEBID, as they significantly influence electron spectra and secondary electron emission, impacting nanostructure fabrication accuracy.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent research on surface excitations and low-energy electron transport relevant to FEBID modeling.

Findings

Surface excitations significantly affect reflection-electron-energy-loss spectra.

Surface excitations are crucial for secondary electron emission regardless of primary energy.

Incorporating surface excitations improves the accuracy of FEBID simulations.

Abstract

The aim of the present overview article is to raise awareness of an essential aspect that is usually not accounted for in the modelling of electron transport for focused-electron-beam-induced deposition (FEBID) of nanostructures: surface excitations are on the one hand responsible for a sizeable fraction of the intensity in reflection-electron-energy-loss spectra for primary electron energies of up to a few keV and, on the other hand, they play a key role in the emission of secondary electrons from solids, regardless of the primary energy. In this overview work we present a general perspective of recent works on the subject of surface excitations and on low-energy electron transport, highlighting the most relevant aspects for the modelling of electron transport in FEBID simulations.