Inelastic energy loss of recoiled hydrogen ions in low-energy He+, Ne+ and Ar+ collisions with hydrogenated silicon surface

Inelastic excitation processes are reported for recoiled hydrogen ions produced by He+, Ne+ and Ar+ ion beams with an energy range from 400 to 1500 eV at hydrogenated silicon surface. Such inelastic excitation processes are observed as displacements in the recoiled hydrogen ion energy from the position of the elastic recoiling, The observed displacements for the recoiled H+ ions are 25 eV in the Ne+ ion incidence, and 20 eV in the Ar+ ion incidence, which are independent of the incident beam energy. In case of the He+ ion incidence, the displacement is not distinguished. As a possible inelastic excitation processes relating to the observed displacement, an electron promotion model that both the neutralized incident ions and the recoiled hydrogen are simultaneously excited to form ground state ions is suggested, where electrons in both atoms are promoted above the Fermi level of the surface during hard collisions.