Theory of below-threshold kinetic electron emission

We investigate the electron emission from clean monotonically flat crystalline aluminum surfaces due to the impact of rare gas atoms at the surface under grazing angles of incidence. Recent improvements of experimental methods allowed for the first time the measurement of electron yields as small as γ ∼ 0.01 electrons/projectile. Using these methods kinetic electron emission (KE) was found for projectile velocities well below the classical threshold vth for KE, the minimum velocity a projectile has to have in order to transfer in a binary collision enough momentum to an electron at the Fermi edge (with k = kF) to overcome the surface potential. Quantum mechanical effects smear out the Fermi edge creating electrons with momenta above kF. We present a calculation of γ in the below threshold region within the framework of a classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulation in which special emphasis is put on the description of the projectile trajectory and on an accurate determination of the momentum distribution, i.e. the Compton profile of the surface electronic structure. We employ different methods for calculating the electronic structure and study its influence on. We find that realistic momentum distributions can account for kinetic electron emission in the below threshold region.