Time evolution of electron transmission through a single glass macrocapillary: Charge build-up, sudden discharge, and recovery

Abstract

The time (i.e., integrated charge) dependence of electron transmission through a single glass macrocapillary was studied for incident 500-and 800-eV electrons at different capillary tilt angles. As the transmitted intensity goes to equilibrium, the centroid energies and corresponding energy values of the full width at half maximum of the transmitted electron distributions are found to vary in phase and out of phase with the transmitted intensity, respectively. Stable equilibrium was not fully reached even for large integrated charge due to sharp oscillations in the transmitted intensity. Plots of the recovery charging curves after breakdown show larger charge constants for the first recovery, but subsequently show smaller values that are about equal to one another for a given beam energy. Previously, such oscillations and recovery have not been reported for electrons.

Charge deposition, redistribution, and decay properties of insulating surfaces obtained from guiding of low-energy ions through capillaries

“…This is typically observed for higher beam intensities as a sudden decrease in transmission, typically long after the guided beam fraction has saturated. In a study by Dassanayake et al [41] using electron beams, the sudden decrease in transmission was observed to be followed by a slow recovery, with the cycle eventually repeating. Several other studies of blocking have also been performed using nanocapillaries (see [42][43][44] and references therein).…”

Exploring new aspects and practical applications of capillary guiding of charged particle beams

“…In 2002 the discovery that charged particles can be guided through insulating capillaries [1] initiated numerous experimental and theoretical investigations of this phenomenon [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Guiding is of interest because the transmitted particles do not change their charge (in the case of ions) or lose significant portions of their kinetic energies (in the case of ions and lower energy electrons).…”

Electron guiding in macroscopic borosilicate capillaries with large bending angles

“…While a quiet period followed by an instant transmission phase was observed in the 90° and 180° samples, the data of the 360° helix capillary test show an intermediate phase in which the transmission was accompanied by strong noise. This is most likely the phase in which the transmission varies as a result of the dynamic evolution of additional negative charge patches, possibly accompanied with sudden discharges as reported by Dassanayake 17 . During the equilibrium the transmission efficiency was at around 74%, which is much lower compared to the previous samples.…”

“…2 ). We considered possible blocking effects that might have disturbed the guiding process due to overcharging as well as sudden discharges of a negative patch within the borosilicate glass capillary as observed in 2010 17 . The scenario of electron transmission after a quiet period has been observed in several studies 14 , 28 , where electrons were guided through PET nanocapillaries.…”

“…First investigations of this kind were performed in 2007: At the University of Belgrade Milosavljević et al irradiated Al 2 O 3 nanocapillaries with slow electrons with energies of 200 to 350 eV 9 – 11 . At the Western Michigan University, several experiments with the transmission of slow electrons (≤ 1000 eV) were conducted with PET nanocapillaries and subsequently extended to polycarbonate nanocapillaries and glass macrocapillaries with straight and tapered geometries 12 – 17 . Additional simulations were performed by the Vienna University of Technology to investigate the underlying mechanisms 18 , 19 .…”