2008/03/05 by Konstantin Iakoubovskii, Kazutaka Mitsuishi, Yoshiko Nakayama +1 · 3 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Electron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #Mean free path #Atomic physics #Electron #Physics #Inelastic scattering #Scattering #Atomic number #Atom (system on chip) #Transmission electron microscopy #Lambda #Scanning transmission electron microscopy #Free electron model #Condensed matter physics #Materials science #Molecular physics #Optics #Quantum mechanics
paper · doi:10.1103/physrevb.77.104102
openalex publication_date 2008/03/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Mean free path of inelastic electron scattering \ensuremathλ has been measured with a 200\phantom\rule0.3em0exkeV transmission electron microscope for the majority of stable elemental solids and their oxides. An oscillating behavior vs atomic number Z has been revealed, such that within one row of the Periodic Table, the minimum (maximum) of \ensuremathλ is observed for elements with completed (empty) outer d shells. A significantly weaker \ensuremathλ(Z) dependence is observed for the oxides. The \ensuremathλ(Z) variation is ascribed to the three major factors: atomic density, number of ``free'' electrons per atom, and contribution of atomic core-loss transitions.