Secondary electron emission and self-consistent charge transport and storage in bulk insulators: Application to alumina

International audienceThe self-consistent charge transport in bulk alumina samples during electron beam irradiation is described by means of an iterative computer simulation. Ballistic electron and hole transport as well as their recombination and trapping are included. As a main result the time-dependent secondary electron emission rate sigma(t) and the spatial distributions of currents j(x,t), charges r(x,t), the field F(x,t), and the potential slope V(x,t) are obtained. For bulk insulating samples, the time-dependent distributions approach the final stationary state with j(x,t)=const=0 and sigma=1. Especially for low electron beam energies E0=1 keV, the incorporation of charges can be controlled by the potential VG of a vacuum electrode in front of the target surface. Finally, for high electron beam energies, the real negative surface potential V0,0 is measured by x-ray bremsstrahlung spectra and the shift of the short wavelength edge. For the initial beam energy E0=30 keV, the experimental value V0=-16 kV is still in good agreement with our simulations