Secondary electron emission influenced by oxidation on the aluminum surface: the roles of the chemisorbed oxygen and the oxide layer

• Published in: Plasma sources science & technology 2018-04, Vol.27 (4), p.44002
• Main Authors: Li, Jiangtao, Hoekstra, Bart, Wang, Zhen-Bin, Qiu, Jie, Pu, Yi-Kang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: aluminum; oxidation; oxygen atom; plasma; secondary electron emission; XPS
• ISSN: 0963-0252; 1361-6595; 1361-6595
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6595/aab74b

A relationship between the apparent secondary electron yield ( γ se ) and the oxygen coverage/oxide layer thickness on an aluminum cathode is obtained in an experiment under a controlled environment. The apparent secondary electron yield ( γ se ) is deduced from the breakdown voltage between two parallel plate electrodes in a 360 mTorr argon environment using a simple Townsend breakdown model with the assumption that the variation of the apparent secondary electron yield is dominated by the variation of the argon ion induced processes. The oxygen coverage/oxide layer thickness on the aluminum cathode is measured by a semi in situ x-ray photoemission spectroscopy equipment which is directly attached to the discharge chamber. It is found that three phases exist: (1) in the monomonolayer regime, as the oxygen coverage increases from 0 to 0.3, γ se decreases by nearly 40 % , (2) as the oxygen coverage increases from 0.3 to 1, γ se keeps nearly constant, (3) as the oxide layer thickness increases from about 0.3 nm to about 1.1 nm, γ se increases by 150 % . We propose that, in the submonolayer regime, the chemisorbed oxygen on the aluminum surface causes the decrease of γ se by creating a local potential barrier, which reduces the Auger neutralization rate and the energy gained by the Auger electrons. In the multilayer regime, as the oxide layer grows in thickness, there are three proposed mechanisms which cause the increase of γ se : (1) the work function decreases; (2) resonance neutralization and Auger de-excitation may exist. This is served as another channel for secondary electron production; (3) the kinetic energy of Auger electrons is increased on average, leading to a higher probability for electrons to overcome the surface potential barrier.