Secondary Electron Yields of Carbon-Coated and Polished Stainless Steel

J. Vac. Sci. Technol., 20, 1313-1316 (1982).

Ruzic, D.N., Moore, R., Manos, D., Cohen, S.

To increase the power throughput to a plasma of an existing lower hybrid waveguide, secondary electron production on the walls and subsequent electron multiplication must be reduced. Since carbon has a low secondary electron coefficient (), measurements were performed for several UHV compatible carbon coatings (Aquadag^–, vacuum pyrolyzed Glyptal^–, and lamp black deposited by electrophoresis) as a function of primary beam voltage (35 eV to 10 keV), surface roughness (60 through 600 grit mechanical polishing and electropolishing), coating thickness, and angle of incidence (). Also measured were uncoated stainless steel, Mo, Cu, Ti, TiC, and ATJ graphite. The yields were obtained by varying the sample bias and measuring the collected current while the samples were in the electron beam of a scanning Auger microprobe. This technique allows measurements of Auger characterized surfaces with ?0.3 mm spatial resolution. Results show to have a typical energy dependence, with a peak occurring at 200 to 300 eV for normal incidence, and at higher energy for larger . In general, increases with more for smooth surfaces than for rough ones. Ninety percent of the secondary electrons have energies less than 25 eV. Some carbonized coating and surface treatment combinations give _max = 0.88 ± 0.01 for normal electron beam incidence—a reduction of almost 40% compared to untreated stainless steel.