Evidence for strong Auger electron diffraction in thin metallic films

¹ Institute of Physics and Physical Technology, Technical University Clausthal D-38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany
² Department of Physics, University of South Africa P.O. Box 392, Pretoria 0003, South Africa

Corresponding author: osuchk@harry.unisa.ac.za

Received: 22 October 2002
Accepted: 20 February 2003

Abstract

We deposited and films on a surface terminated with a pseudomorphic monolayer (ML). Instead of continuously decreasing, the -MVV (330) Auger signal received in normal emission from the ML increases for the coverage range of 1–2 of the deposited or . This increase leads to a -MVV (330) Auger signal even stronger than that coming from the uncovered substrate. We demonstrate that the forward focusing of the -MVV (330) Auger electrons by the growing or film is responsible for this effect. We subsequently show how this phenomenon can be used to determine the absolute thickness of the deposited films, making Auger electron diffraction more useful for film thickness determination than signal damping in Auger electron spectroscopy.