CALCULATIONS OF EFFECTIVE INELASTIC MEAN FREE PATHS IN SOLIDS

We have calculated the effective inelastic mean free paths (EIMFPs) fo r electrons in some elemental solids; i.e. Li, Na, K, Rb, Al, Si, Cu, Ag, and Au in the range 50-2000 eV using Monte Carlo simulation. We de fined the effective inelastic mean free path as the straight distance between two successive inelastic collisions. This quantity is independ ent on the experimental configuration. In conclusion, the values of EI MFP could be expressed as gamma x lambda, where gamma is a coefficient of the effect of the elastic scattering and lambda the inelastic mean free path, in the range 100-2000 eV for all calculated elements. The gamma values obtained from the calculations were 0.85-1.0. Above the 1 000 eV region for alkali metals, Al and Si, we could ignore the effect of the elastic scattering because the gamma values were larger than 0 .95. We could not determine the gamma values a for Au and Ag in the ra nge 50-100 eV because their intensities of the signals calculated by t he Monte Carlo method did not vary exponentially with the distance bet ween two successive inelastic collisions.