Absorption of an electron by a dielectric wall

TL;DR

This paper presents a new method to calculate the likelihood of low-energy electrons being absorbed by dielectric walls, challenging the common assumption that such walls are perfect absorbers in plasma models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel calculation approach for electron sticking probabilities on dielectric walls, specifically applied to MgO, revealing lower probabilities than previously assumed.

Findings

Sticking probabilities are significantly less than one.

The perfect absorber assumption in plasma modeling is questioned.

Energy-dependent electron absorption probabilities are demonstrated.

Abstract

We introduce a method for calculating the probability with which a low-energy electron hitting the wall of a plasma gets stuck in it and apply the method to a dielectric wall with positive electron affinity smaller than the bandgap using MgO as an example. In accordance with electron beam scattering data we obtain energy-dependent sticking probabilities significantly less than unity and question thereby for electrons the perfect absorber assumption unisono used in plasma modeling.