Electron-Hole Pair Creation by Atomic Scattering at Surfaces

Abstract

We report the direct measurement of the excitation of electron-hole pairs at a single-crystal InP (100) surface, induced by the scattering of ground-state Xe atoms over an incident energy range $2 \mathrm{eV}<E_i<10\mathrm{} \mathrm{eV}$. Above $E_i\sim 3$ eV the yield is fitted well by an exponential dependence on $E_i^{}{}_{}{}^{-1\mathrm{}}$. The incident-energy and angle dependence suggest the creation of a local thermal hot spot with fast electronic equilibration.