Dynamic secondary electron emission characteristics of polymers in negative charging process

Abstract

We studied the dynamic secondary electron emission (SEE) characteristics of a polyimide sample in negative charging process under electron bombardment. The time evolution of secondary electron yield (SEY) has been measured with a pulsed electron gun. The dynamic SEY, as well as the surface potential have been analyzed using a capacitance model. The shift in surface potential caused by the negative charge accumulation on the sample reduces the landing energy of the primary electrons (PEs), which in turn alters the SEY. The charging process tends to be stable when the landing energy of PEs reaches the secondary crossover energy where the corresponding SEY is 1. The surface potential has an approximately negative exponential relationship with the irradiation time. The total accumulated charge at the stable state is found to be proportional to the product of the sample capacitance and the difference between initial incident energy and the secondary crossover energy. The time constant of the exponential function is proportional to the ratio of final accumulated charge to the incident current.