Incident-beam enhancements of Auger electron scattering

Abstract

The role of scattering of the incident excitation electrons is examined by use of judiciously chosen scattering geometries that allow for the experimental separation of incident-beam effects and Auger-electron-scattering effects. The scattering of 4-keV incident electrons can result in variations greater than 25% of the Auger electron intensity for scattering from bcc Fe(001). A simple procedure for detecting the presence of incident-beam effects in other systems is given.