Positron diffusion in Mo: The role of epithermal positrons

Positrons at keV energies, incident on Mo(111) are observed to escape the sample prior to thermalization. Analysis of positron back-diffusion data shows that an excess contribution of ‘‘hot’’ positronium (Ps) seriously affects positron mobility measurements. Suppressing the ‘‘hot’’ Ps fraction the positron diffusion coefficient is shown to vary as $T^{\mathrm{-}0.50\left(4\right)\mathrm{}}$. The positron implantation profile possesses a shape of a derivative of a Gaussian function. The implications of these observations to related experiments are discussed.