Secondary electron emission from Ag(100) stimulated by positron and electron impact

Measurements have been made of energy spectra and total yields of secondary electrons ejected from an Ag(100) surface bombarded by positrons and electrons of energies in the range 0.1–2.5 keV. The shape of the secondary electron energy spectrum is found to be virtually independent of incident energy and particle. A comparison of the spectrum shape with that for nonthermalised positron re-emission from the same surface suggests strong correlation between the two processes at low incident energies. The similarity between secondary electron and epithermal positron re-emission spectra suggests a means for extracting the contribution of epithermal positrons to total re-emitted positron spectra. The shape of the spectra and the yield curves are in good agreement with previous measurements.