Probing Electron-Hole Pair Production in Ultrathin Film Schottky Diode Devices using Hyperthermal Energy Ion Beams.

We are investigating the interactions of hyperthermal energy ions with ultrathin film Schottky diode devices, probing the role of ion-surface impact events and charge transfer on electron-hole pair production. Specifically, we measure currents that arise from electron-hole pair production at a diode surface. To date, these currents have been explored only for thermal energy gas-surface impacts, where they are called ``chemicurrents''. Using a UHV beamline to produce well-collimated monoenergetic noble gas and alkali-metal beams from 10 eV to 10 keV, we have the unique flexibility to probe our in-house designed diode devices with a wide range of incident species, energies, and charge states. Preliminary results are presented and discussed in the context of basic gas-surface energy transfer processes.