Experimental studies of electron emission produced by fast, grazing ion-surface interactions

Recent measurements of electron emission from grazing collisions of carbon ions, in various charge states and having velocities of a few atomic units, with atomically clean and flat surfaces are presented and discussed. The absolute yield corresponding to convoy electron emission, apparently accelerated by the projectile-induced image potential, agrees well with a simulation by Reinhold and Burgdoerfer, but the spectral distribution agrees less well. Experimental data is also available for the angular distribution of emission. Studies of the influence of the projectile charge and the extent to which charge state equilibration occurs are also examined. copyright 1999 American Institute of Physics