Characteristic Secondary Electron Emission from Graphite and Glassy Carbon Surfaces

Abstract

Secondary electron emissions (SEE) from graphite and glassy carbon surfaces have been measured. The spectra give several characteristic peaks whose energies are independent of incident electron energies from 20 to 2500 eV. It has been proved that the SEE spectra show good agreement with core electron excitation energy loss spectra and with the calculated density of state (DOS) of the conduction band. Thus, the SEE spectra directly reflect the conduction band DOS above vacuum level, and the difference between the spectra of graphite and glassy carbon comes from the difference in their conduction band structures.