Inelastic mean free path
The inelastic mean free path (IMFP) is an index of how far an electron on average travels through a solid before losing energy.
If a monochromatic, primary beam of electrons is incident on a solid surface, the majority of incident electrons lose their energy because they interact strongly with matter, leading to plasmon excitation, electron-hole pair formation, and vibrational excitation.
[2] The intensity of the primary electrons, I0, is damped as a function of the distance, d, into the solid.
The intensity decay can be expressed as follows: where I(d) is the intensity after the primary electron beam has traveled through the solid to a distance d. The parameter λ(E), termed the inelastic mean free path (IMFP), is defined as the distance an electron beam can travel before its intensity decays to 1/e of its initial value.
The inelastic mean free path of electrons can roughly be described by a universal curve that is the same for all materials.
[1][3] The knowledge of the IMFP is indispensable for several electron spectroscopy and microscopy measurements.
Besides, one can utilize the IMFP to make matrix corrections for the relative sensitivity factor in quantitative surface analysis.
Moreover, the IMFP is an important parameter in Monte Carlo simulations of photoelectron transport in matter.
Calculations of the IMFP are mostly based on the algorithm (full Penn algorithm, FPA) developed by Penn,[6] experimental optical constants or calculated optical data (for compounds).
[5] The FPA considers an inelastic scattering event and the dependence of the energy-loss function (EFL) on momentum transfer which describes the probability for inelastic scattering as a function of momentum transfer.
[5] To measure the IMFP, one well known method is elastic-peak electron spectroscopy (EPES).
[5][7] This method measures the intensity of elastically backscattered electrons with a certain energy from a sample material in a certain direction.
Applying a similar technique to materials whose IMFP is known, the measurements are compared with the results from the Monte Carlo simulations under the same conditions.
EPES measurements show a root-mean-square (RMS) difference between 12% and 17% from the theoretical expected values.
Such measurements reveal that IMFP in elemental solids is not a smooth, but an oscillatory function of the atomic number.
[8] For energies below 100 eV, IMFP can be evaluated in high-energy secondary electron yield (SEY) experiments.
[9] Therefore, the SEY for an arbitrary incident energy between 0.1 keV-10 keV is analyzed.
According to these experiments, a Monte Carlo model can be used to simulate the SEYs and determine the IMFP below 100 eV.
can be calculated by solving the following integral: with the minimum (maximum) energy loss
In general, solving this integral is quite challenging and only applies for energies above 100 eV.
A first approach is to calculate the IMFP by an approximate form of the relativistic Bethe equation for inelastic scattering of electrons in matter.
in eV above the Fermi level (conductors) or above the bottom of the conduction band (non-conductors).
Equation 2 calculates the IMFP and its dependence on the electron energy in condensed matter.
Neglecting a few materials (diamond, graphite, Cs, cubic-BN and hexagonal BN) that are not following these equations (due to deviations in
Another approach based on Equation 2 to determine the IMFP is the S1 formula.
[5][12] This formula can be applied for energies between 100 eV and 10 keV: with the atomic number
This S1 formula shows higher agreement with measurements compared to Equation 2.
An analytical formula for calculating the IMFP down to 50 eV was proposed in 2021.
IMFP data can be collected from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Electron Inelastic-Mean-Free-Path Database[13] or the NIST Database for the Simulation of Electron Spectra for Surface Analysis (SESSA).
[14] The data contains IMFPs determined by EPES for energies below 2 keV.
