Low energy electron attenuation length studies in thin amorphous carbon films

Abstract The results of experiments on low energy electrons passing through thin amorphous carbon films are reported. For electron energies between 50 and 3000 eV, electron attenuation lengths were determined by electron transmission measurements through carbon films of thicknesses between 81 and 210 A. The density of these amorphous carbon films was also obtained by a sink—float method and found to be 1.90 ± 0.05 g cm −3 . The electron attenuation length for inelastic scattering was found to increase monotonically from approximately 10 to 55 A over the 50 to 3000 eV range. Over the 500–3000 eV energy region, the results are in good agreement with mean free paths calculated using optically measured dielectric functions.