MULTIPLICITY ANALYSIS - A STUDY OF SECONDARY PARTICLE DISTRIBUTION AND CORRELATION

A statistical treatment of the number of secondary electrons, ions or neutrals emitted as a consequence of projectile-solid collision is des cribed. The multiplicity distribution of the ejected particles and the ir correlation coefficients Q are defined and discussed. A random emis sion model is analyzed analytically and some of its predictions are co mpared with Monte Carlo simulations. This treatment provides basic gro unds for coincidence counting analysis. It is shown that the secondary ion emission of certain systems is strongly correlated, thus providin g information about their desorption mechanism. Background material in statistics and the Monte Carlo algorithm used are presented in Append ices A-D. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.