THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION OF FAST KINETIC ELECTRON-EMISSION IN ION-SURFACE COLLISIONS

We present a microscopic description of the emission of fast electrons in glancing-angle ion-surface collisions. We employ a classical traje ctory Monte Carlo approach that treats the primary production of kinet ic electrons in close collisions and their subsequent transport throug h the surface region on the same footing. Dynamic image interactions a nd multiple scattering are explicitly included. As an application, we analyze the ejected electron spectra over a broad range of electron en ergies and emission angles for 0.2-0.5-MeV/u Li ions interacting with SnTe(001) surfaces. Good agreement is found with experiment for the sh ape of the spectrum of forward-ejected electrons containing prominent structures such as the convoy electron peak and the binary ridge.