Choice of a range-energy relationship for the analysis of electron-beam-induced-current line scans

The electron range in a material is an important parameter in the analysis of electron-beam-induced-current (EBIC) line scans. Both the Kanaya–Okayama (KO) and Everhart–Hoff (EH) range-energy relationships have been widely used by investigators for this purpose. Although the KO range is significantly larger than the EH range, no study has been done to examine the effect of choosing one range over the other on the values of the surface recombination velocity sT and minority-carrier diffusion length L evaluated from EBIC line scans. Such a study has been carried out, focusing on two major questions: (1) When the KO range is used in different reported methods to evaluate either or both sT and L from EBIC line scans, how different are their values thus determined in comparison to those using the EH range?; (2) from EBIC line scans of a given material, is there a way to discriminate between the KO and the EH ranges which should be used to analyze these scans? Answers to these questions are presented to assist investigators in extracting more reliable values of either or both sT and L and in finding the right range to use in the analysis of these line scans.