Calculations of ‘effective’ inelastic mean free paths in solids

We have calculated the effective inelastic mean free paths (EIMFPs) for electrons in some elemental solids; i.e. Li, Na, K, Rb, Al, Si, Cu, Ag, and Au in the range 50–2000 eV using Monte Carlo simulation. We defined the effective inelastic mean free path as the straight distance between two successive inelastic collisions. This quantity is independent on the experimental configuration. In conclusion, the values of EIMFP could be expressed asγ × λ, where γ is a coefficient of the effect of the elastic scattering and λ the inelastic mean free path, in the range 100–2000 eV for all calculated elements. The γ values obtained from the calculations were 0.85–1.0. Above the 1000 eV region for alkali metals, Al and Si, we could ignore the effect of the elastic scattering because the γ values were larger than 0.95. We could not determine the γ values for Au and Ag in the range 50–100 eV because their intensities of the signals calculated by the Monte Carlo method did not vary exponentially with the distance between two successive inelastic collisions.