Background formation in the low-energy region in Auger electron spectroscopy

Monte Carlo simulations of cascade processes of secondary electron generation in Si, Cu, and Au have been performed to study the energy distribution of backscattered electrons in the low-energy region. Calculation results show that the characteristic hump appearing in the energy distribution above Si-LVV Auger peak in the EN(E) spectrum can be well described by those electrons ejected from the L shell followed by the cascade process. The shape of EN(E) spectra in the low-energy region is dominated by the directly produced secondary electrons and, hence, strongly correlated with the excitation spectrum Im[−1/ε(ω)] for electron generation.