The computer simulation and classical interpretation of fast ion emission profiles near planes

Abstract

The techniques of computer simulation are used to generate the velocity distribution of ions emerging near close packed planes from a crystal surface. We concern ourselves in particular with protons and α-particles, 5 to 100 keV, near (100) planes in copper. The ions are initially emitted from either a lattice site-the ‘blocking case ‘or any other given point within a unit cell’ intermediate emission’. The resultant profiles are compared with an analytic model due to Andersen⁽⁶⁾ based on the continuum approximation, and the validity of this model is thereby assessed. A simpler analytic model in which the interplanar continuum potential is approximated by a pure harmonic is also developed and compared with the previous two. Using the harmonic approximation we obtain a relatively simple relationship between the yield measured exactly parallel to a plane and the position of the original emission site. It is suggested that such a relationship could be of importance for experiments that can measure nuclear lifetimes of the order of 10⁻¹⁸ to 10⁻¹⁶ seconds.