Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 32, 29-36 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap:2005068

Determination of the evolution of the surface potential of a charging insulator by measuring the intensity of its X-ray characteristic peaks

¹ IREENA (EA 1770), Faculté des Sciences et des Techniques de Nantes, 2 rue de la Houssinière, BP 92208, 44322 Nantes Cedex 03, France
² Laboratoire Matériaux, Organisation et Propriétés, Campus Universitaire, 1060 le Belvédère, Tunis, Tunisia

Corresponding author: raphael.renoud@physique.univ-nantes.fr

Received: 26 October 2004
Revised: 7 June 2005
Accepted: 5 July 2005
Published online: 25 October 2005

Abstract

The charge developed in an insulator by an electron beam has often been studied by following the evolution of the secondary electron emission of the target. However this latter proves to be insufficient when one attempts to correlate it with physical properties of the sample such as its density of traps and their spatial distribution. An important step would be to have access to the time evolution of the surface potential V_s(t). However, this latter quantity is not easy to measure. In this paper, we propose a new method to measure the evolution of the surface potential by relating it to the X-ray emission induced by the electronic bombardment. More exactly, we show that there is a relation between the intensity of the characteristic peaks and the potential existing under the beam impact at a given instant of the charge. After having explained the method, we check its validity both experimentally and also by comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. We then present initial results obtained for amorphous SiO₂ targets.