Calculation of electron-surface inelastic interaction cross-section and Monte Carlo simulation of surface excitation

The study of inelastic scattering of electrons in a surface region is important to the comprehensive understanding of the basic process of electron-surface interaction in electron microscopy, and surface electron spectroscopy. Recently, interest has grown in the study of the surface energy loss features presented in Auger electron spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy spectra. The relevant differential cross-section for electron-surface inelastic scattering can be obtained from the electron self-energy which is inhomogeneous in its distance from the surface. This self-energy has been formulated in terms of a wave-vector dependent dielectric function, which is obtained from optical data. We present our calculation model and report numerical computation results performed with a parallel computer, Dawn-1000, on the electron-surface inelastic scattering cross-section. With this cross-section we have carried out a Monte Carlo simulation of electron trajectories penetrating an Au-surface. The simulated REELS-spectra have been compared with an experimental measurement to confirm the usefulness of the present scattering model.