M. Akbulut et al., ELASTIC AND INELASTIC PROCESSES IN THE INTERACTION OF 1-10 EV IONS WITH SOLIDS - ION-TRANSPORT THROUGH SURFACE-LAYERS, Surface science reports, 28(7-8), 1997, pp. 177-245
We review the escape depth of secondary ions (or neutrals) desorbing f
rom solid surfaces under the impact of electrons, photons or ions. We
survey ion(or neutral) transport through many materials, but most are
wide band gap insulators such as rare-gas solids and molecular solids.
We address the issue of low-energy (<10 eV) ion-solid interactions, a
nd review experimental and theoretical studies that provide insight in
to the physical mechanisms of these interactions, such as elastic scat
tering, charge transfer and ion-molecule reactions, Although it is usu
ally assumed that most of the secondary ions stem from the top surface
layer, we show that this is not necessarily the case: In certain inst
ances, 1-10 eV ions are able to transmit solid films which are several
monolayers thick. The transport of low-energy ions through materials
has very broad implications. We point out the importance of these resu
lts for election or photon stimulated desorption (ESD/PSD), secondary
ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and ion-sputtering of surfaces, and disc
uss their relevance to other fields, such as ion beam deposition (IBD)
, low-energy ion implantation, and electrochemistry.