Secondary electron emission spectra from clean and cesiated Al surfaces: the role of plasmon decay and data analysis for applications

We report measurements of energy spectra of secondary electrons emitted from clean and cesiated aluminum surfaces under the impact of 130 eV electrons. Measurements show that the decay of bulk and surface plasmons dominates the electron emission. In contrast with theoretical calculations, our experiments indicate that the electron collision cascade inside the solid produced by electrons excited by plasmon decay do not contribute significantly to electron emission. A simple analysis of electron energy distributions measured as a function of Cs surface coverage allows separation of rediffused incident electrons from the continuum background of true secondary electrons. The result shows that yields of rediffused electrons used in several applications may have been significantly overestimated.