Abstract
To obtain γe for H2+ ion bombardment on metal targets, an expression for the secondary electron emission coefficient by fast positive ion bombardment is obtained after adopting a method of calculation similar to that employed by Sternglass. It is shown that the experimental values of γe for H2+ ion bombardment agree with the calculated values provided it is assumed that inside the target a hydrogen molecular ion is dissociated into a proton and a hydrogen atom, each having half the energy of the molecular ion. The dissociation cross section of a hydrogen molecular ion inside the target may be given by σd=KT, where K=1.2, σd is expressed in units of 1017 cm2, and T is in Mev.