Contribution to the study of elastic electron backscattering from polycrystalline metallic targets by Monte Carlo simulation

Low energy elastic electron backscattering has been used recently as a new tool for surface analysis. The theoretical description of this phenomenon has been mostly made by Monte Carlo simulation. Recently, several analytical approaches have been developed based on the Boltzmann equation for electron transport. However, these approaches do not give a clear image of the elastic electron backscattering phenomenon. It is precisely the aim of this paper to contribute to the study of this phenomenon by Monte Carlo simulation and to propose a very simple expression for the backscattering yield as well as a simple model for the angular distribution of elastically reflected electrons.