Secondary Electron Emission from Copper Surfaces

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Abstract
Secondary Electrons from a Copper Surface Bombarded by Electrons.—The method used was to measure the current flowing to the bombarded plate as a function of the grid potential. By using sufficiently low pressures the ionization effect was made negligible. (1) The coefficient of secondary emission was found to increase somewhat with the energy of the primary electron up to 500 volts but never exceeded 1.5 per electron; the coefficient was increased by heat treating the plate, and was greatly decreased by raising the temperature of the plate. (2) The energy of the secondary electrons was always less than that corresponding to a fall through 5 volts, yet owing to the roughness of the surface an accelerating potential of about 10 volts is required to release most of the secondary electrons from the plate. (3) As to the origin of these rays, the fact that their maximum energy is always less than the energy of the primary rays and the shape of the curves obtained both indicate that the secondary electrons are not reflected electrons.

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