Secondary electron emission from MgO protective layer by Auger neutralization of ions

A theoretical model of the secondary electron emission yield (gamma) from a MgO layer is developed based on the Auger neutralization of ions, resulting in an analytical expression of gamma in terms of the ionization energy E-i for the density of states in the valence band, being an exponentially decaying function of the energy deviation from the band characteristic energy of 7.88 eV. The analytical expression recovers the previously known empirical formulation of gamma similar to(E-i-2 phi) for the work function phi. Results of the theoretical model agree well with the measured data in terms of the data trend.