Total electron yield of layered synthetic materials with interfacial roughness

The applicability of grazing-angle total-electron-yield spectroscopy as a tool for probing the microstructures in layered synthetic materials is investigated. A model proposed for describing the angular variation of grazing-incidence total electron yield (TEY) is shown to agree well with experimental results. Both theoretical and experimental evidence indicates that the probing depth in this angular TEY spectroscopy for layered structures is comparable with the characteristic x-ray attenuation length and is not limited by the inelastic mean free path of secondary electrons that dominate the TEY signal. This technique can therefore be used as a convenient tool for in-depth microstructural studies of various layered materials.