AVS 50th International Symposium
    Applied Surface Science Thursday Sessions
       Session AS-ThM

Paper AS-ThM5
Comparison of X-ray and Electron Beam Induced Damage Rates

Thursday, November 6, 2003, 9:40 am, Room 324/325

Session: Electron Spectroscopy
Presenter: A.S. Lea, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Authors: A.S. Lea, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
M.H. Engelhard, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
D.R. Baer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
While many people are aware of the effects of damaging electrons during Auger electron spectroscopy or electron microscopy, x-ray induced changes in specimens frequently occur and may be more common than often recognized or noted in the literature. Although electrons interact strongly with samples with a high damage cross-section and x-rays of similar energies interact less strongly and penetrate deeper into a material, the mechanisms of damage are often very similar. In an effort to efficiently take advantage of the variety of damage rates reported in the literature to obtain estimates for possible thresholds for different system, we have examined the rates of both electron induced and x-ray induced damage for a variety of materials. Based on the data, an approach is developed to compare x-ray damage rates reported for different systems and an approximate method for comparing electron beam and x-ray damage is reported. The electron beam damage is done using a 10 kV electron beam in a Phi 680 system while the x-ray damage is done in a Phi Quantum 2000. For at least some materials (e.g., poly(vinyl chloride) and poly(acrylonitrile)), the ratio of electron and x-ray damage rates are essentially identical even when the absolute rates differ by a factor of 10.