Electron inelastic mean free paths in cerium dioxide

Electron transport properties in CeO2 powder samples were studied by elastic-peak electron spectroscopy (EPES). Prior to EPES measurements, the CeO2 sample surface was pre-sputtered by 0.5 keV Ar ion etching. As a result, an altered layer with thickness of 1.3 nm was created. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis revealed two chemical states of cerium Ce4+ (68%) and Ce3+ (32%) at the surface region of CeO2 sample after such treatment. The inelastic mean free path (IMFP), characterizing electron transport, was evaluated as a function of energy within the 0.5-2 keV range. Experimental IMFPs were corrected for surface excitations and approximated by the simple function λ = kEp, where λ was the IMFP, E denoted the energy (in eV), and k = 0.207 and p = 0.6343 were the fitted parameters. The IMFPs measured here were compared with IMFPs resulting from the TPP-2M predictive equation for the measured composition of oxide surface. The measured IMFPs were found to be from 3.1% to 20.3% smaller than the IMFPs obtained from the predictive formula in the energy range of 0.5-2 keV. The EPES IMFP value at 500 eV was related to the altered layer of sputtered CeO2 samples.