Surface and Bulk Plasmon Excitation on Aluminum Surface at Small to High Grazing Angles

Abstract

We present a series of spectra measured by reflected electron energy loss spectroscopy on an aluminum sample using a cylindrical mirror analyzer. The measurements were performed in the energy range between 250 eV and 2000 eV and with various incident angles, including the grazing geometry of an 88° incident angle. The observed spectra were evaluated and decomposed for surface and bulk excitation. The determined surface plasmon excitations were compared to the elastic peak and to the bulk excitation. We found a slight surface plasmon energy shift with altering glancing angles. We show that this shift exists independently from the bulk plasmon interference.

Keywords

• surface plasmon
• bulk plasmon
• grazing incident electron excitations
• energy loss spectroscopy