Identification of Auger mechanisms responsible for low energy electron emission from graphene on copper using Auger-gamma coincidence spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new spectroscopic method combining Auger and gamma coincidence measurements to analyze electron emission mechanisms in graphene on copper, successfully resolving complex Doppler spectra into electronic level components.

Contribution

The study presents a novel experimental approach that decomposes Doppler broadened gamma spectra into electronic contributions, confirming the role of Auger processes in low energy electron emission from graphene on copper.

Findings

Successfully decomposed gamma spectra into electronic components.

Validated the method with theoretical models.

Confirmed Auger transitions cause low energy electron emission.

Abstract

We present a novel method for the analysis of the Doppler broadened spectrum of gamma photons emitted following the annihilation of surface trapped positrons with the electrons of bilayer graphene supported on polycrystalline Cu substrate. The method relies on the measurement of the energy of the Doppler shifted annihilation gamma photons in coincidence with the Auger electrons emitted following the decay of the contemporaneously produced annihilation induced hole. Through the selection of annihilation gamma corresponding to O KVV (adsorbed O), C KVV (graphene), and Cu MVV (substrate) Auger transitions, we have decomposed the annihilation gamma spectrum into spectral components representing annihilation of the positron with 1s electrons of C and O and 3p electrons of Cu. These experimentally derived Doppler broadened gamma line shapes agrees well with the theoretically derived model line shapes demonstrating the ability of our method to resolve a complex Doppler line shapes into its veiled electronic level constituents which has, heretofore, only been achieved through theoretical analysis. We have also demonstrated the reversibility of the analysis method by decomposing the Auger spectra into regions which corresponds to the annihilation gamma photons with a large Doppler shift or to Auger spectra correlated with annihilation gamma photons with a small doppler shift. The reverse analysis provides additional proof that Auger transitions following deep valence annihilations result in the emission of low energy electrons.