surface science ELSEVIER Applied Surface Science 111 (1997) 251-258 Secondary electron emission studies A. Shih *, J. Yater, C. Hor, R. Abrams Natal Research l_xlboratory, Washington. DC 20375, USA Received 14 June 1996; revised 28 July 1996; accepted 23 August 1996 Abstract Secondary-electron-emission processes under electron bombardment play an important role in the performance of a variety of electron devices. While in some devices, the anode and the grid require materials that suppress the secondary-elec- tron-generation process, the crossed-field amplifier (CFA) is an example where the cathode requires an efficient secondary- electron-emission material. Secondary-electron-emission processes will be discussed by a three-step process: penetration of the primary electrons, transmission of the secondary electrons through the material, and final escape of the secondary electrons over the vacuum barrier. The transmission of the secondary electrons is one of the critical factors in determining the magnitude of the secondary-electron yield. The wide band-gap in an insulator prevents low-energy secondary electrons from losing energy through electron-electron collisions, thereby resulting in a large escape depth for the secondary electrons and a large secondary-electron yield. In general, insulating materials have high secondary-electron yields, but a provision to supply some level of electrical conductivity is necessary in order to replenish the electrons lost in the secondary-electron- emission process. Our secondary-emission study of diamond demonstrates that the vacuum barrier height can have a strong effect on the total yield. The combined effect of a large escape depth of the secondary electrons and a low vacuum-barrier height is responsible for the extraordinarily high secondary-electron yields observed on hydrogen-terminated diamond samples. 1. Introduction the tube walls to prevent RF vacuum breakdown. On the other hand, high secondary-electron-emission Secondary-electron-emission processes under materials are desirable for grids in electron multipli- electron bombardment play an essential role in vac- ers and for cathodes in crossed-field devices, which uum electronic devices. The materials used in the is the area of our interest. devices may need to be judiciously selected in some Crossed-field devices, e.g., magnetrons and cases to enhance the secondary-electron emission crossed-field amplifiers (CFA), have established a and in other cases to suppress the emission. In long history of applications in radar systems. Their microwave and millimeter wave power tubes, low advantages include high efficiency, low cost, low secondary-electron-emission materials are desirable voltage, and compactness. Consequently, they also for depressed collectors in order to ensure a high find wide applications in microwave cooking, indus- efficiency in the energy conversion. Low-emission trial processing and radiation therapy equipment [1]. materials are also sought for coating the grids and More recent applications are found in the generation of plasma for precision etching and in highly-effi- Corresponding author. Fax: + 1-202-7671280; e-mail address: cient electric lighting. Exotic applications [1] are shih @estd.nrl.navy.mil. being explored for the generation of gigawatt-power 0169-4332/97/$17.00 Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII S01 69-4332(96)00729-5 252 A. Shih et al. /Applied SurJace Science 111 (1997) 251-258 microwaves using a magnetically-insulated-line- dence (but not the magnitude) of the emission, ex- oscillator (MILO) concept, and for beaming power cept in the simple case of A1, which is close to the (wireless power transmission) using an electroni- assumed free-electron picture [9]. We will discuss cally-steerable-phased-array-module (ESPAM) con- the secondary-electron-emission process in a mostly cept. A good knowledge of secondary-electron-emis- qualitative manner, as done by Jenkin and Trodden sion processes are crucial to the design of these [10], and will support the discussion with our obser- devices. In some applications, e.g., AEGIS CFA's, vations. The discussion of the secondary-emission only limited materials are available which have suffi- process is organized according to the distinct steps ciently high secondary-electron yields to satisfy the used in all of the theories. The final step, which device's needs. involves the overcome of the vacuum barrier, was One of the major current challenges to crossed- considered to play only a minor role in the sec- field devices (CFD's) is noise reduction. The re- ondary-electron-emission process. However, the sec- quirement on the signal-to-noise ratio becomes more ondary-electron-emission behavior observed on dia- stringent in radar applications, which demand high mond demonstrates the important role of the vacuum resolution and fast response for small and close-to- barrier. gether targets in a cluttered environment. In mi- crowave-oven applications, a potential interference with the neighboring band allocated to the new 2. Primary electron penetration and internal sec- 'wireless' services calls for a reduction in the side- ondary electron generation band noise of the magnetrons. At present, CFDs are The theories treat secondary-electron emission as much noisier than coupled-cavity traveling-wave occurring in three distinct steps: (l) production of tubes, although in principle they should have compa- internal secondary electrons by kinetic impact of the rable noise characteristics [2,3]. Both experimental primary electrons, (2) transport of the internal sec- and theoretical efforts are pursuing noise reduction ondary electrons through the sample bulk toward the in CFDs with vigor. A thorough understanding of the surface, and (3) escape of the electrons through the secondary-electron-emission processes is essential to solid-vacuum interface. the success of these efforts. The secondary-electron- The primary electrons are assumed to travel in a emission characteristics of the cathodes are found to straight-ahead path, slowing down through collisions have a major effect on the signal-to-noise ratio [4,5]. with electrons and ions and transferring kinetic en- In particular, numerical simulations and experimental ergy to internally generated secondary electrons. results have demonstrated that a very high electron Most of the theories treat the energy loss according emission (primary or secondary) would cause the to the 'power law', transition of the CFD to a low noise state [5]. Secondary-electron-emission is a complex pro- dE A cess, and theoretical treatments are numerous. Earlier dx E" (1) treatments have been reviewed by Dekker [6] and by where E is the energy of a primary electron at a Hachenberg and Brauer [7]. More recent theoretical depth x, and A is an arbitrary constant. N(x), the developments are summarized by Devooght et al. [8]. number of the secondary electrons produced in the While the earlier models produced an overall agree- layer dx, is assumed to be equal to the energy loss in ment with experimental observations as good as the the layer dE divided by the average excitation en- more elaborate later models, the main problem was ergy B. Thus, the lack of justification for the simplifying assump- dE tions [8]. These theories were able to predict most of N(x)dx = - ~ (2) the important characteristics of the secondary-elec- tron emission, such as the secondary-electron yield A straight forward derivation [ 10] leads to as a function of primary-electron energy and the , energy distribution of the secondary electrons. All of N(x) = B( R - x)"/"+ ' (3) the theories predict well only the functional depen- A. Shih et al. / Applied Surf'ace Science Ill (1997) 251-258 253 and 2.00 E~ +1 ....... ...............................................0=° o o R (4) 1.60 (n+ 1)a 1.20 4 0 ° where R is the maximum penetration depth and E o : 22.5 ° is the initial energy of the primary electrons. .?/ 0 ° The best fit for the value of n was found to be II 0.80 .i; 0.35, as determined by electron transmission mea- surements in A1203 [11] as well as by fitting the 0.40 'reduced yield curves' [6] taken from many materi- als. A quantum mechanical calculation [7] derived an 0.00 ".... i .... i .... i .... i approximate value of n = 0.39, which is fairly close 500 1000 1500 2000 to 0.35. The value obtained for n is valid over the Primary Electron Energy (eV) energy range between 300 eV and 3 keV for the Fig. 2. Changes in the secondary-electron yield with incident theory and 300 eV and 7 keV for the experiments. angle 0. Normal incidence is at 0 = 0°. The data were taken on a Eq. (3) reveals the increasing importance of sec- clean molybdenumsample. ondary-electron production near the end of the pri- mary-electron path and Eq. (4) points out that the process or by a diffusion process which involves a penetration depth of the primary electrons increases large number of scattering events. Some later models with increasing energy. The former fact is clearly explicitly take into account the electron-cascade pro- shown in Fig. 1, which can be understood on a cess, which is the electron multiplication that occurs physical level by considering a simple description of during the slowing-down of the internal secondary the primary electrons moving through the solid. At electrons. In all of the models, the escape of the high primary energies, the high-velocity electrons internal secondary electrons is described by an expo- have a relatively short time to interact with the nential decay law with a characteristic escape depth lattice electrons, and the internal yield per unit length X s • is low. As the primary electrons lose energy, the Based on the penetration-depth (R) and escape- interaction time increases and so does the yield. The depth (X~) concepts, the shape of the secondary-elec- combined effect is that as the primary-electron en- tron yield curve as a function of the primary energy ergy increases, the internal secondary electrons origi- is easily explained [10].