Exoelectron Emission as emission of hot electrons

The Exoelectron emission (EEE) and Thermoluminescence (TL) of a KCl thin film were investigated. The experimental results are presented and interpreted from the point of view that the EEE is the emission of hot electrons from the dielectric. This assumption for the difference of the activation energies of EEE (E-E) and TL (E-L), leads to the expression E-E - E-L = chiT/T-c, where T and T-e are the temperatures of the lattice and of the electrons and X is the electron affinity of the solid. This relation has been experimentally verified on a KCl thin film by measuring all five terms in the equation under the same experimental conditions. The electron affinity of the KCl film was measured from the energy distribution of the secondary electron emission. The temperatures of the exoelectrons were calculated from the tails of their energy distributions and were much higher than those of the body. The experimental results were in agreement with the expression for the difference of the activation energies. (C) 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.