Charging regime of pur spinel studied by secondary electron emission

Insulators are currently used in high technological devices. They are chosen because of their electrical properties of insulation and their thermal properties. It is well known that the presence of space charge in an insulator is correlated with an electric breakdown. Charging phenomena of insulator were studied thanks to a scanning electron microscope (SEM) which allows the injection of few electrons doses in a large domain of energies. SEM permits also the measurements of the secondary electron emission and the induced current created in the sample holder by the charges generated in the sample. The results showed that the secondary electron emission yield (SEE) σ is a very sensitive parameter to characterize the charging state of an insulator. In this work we investigate the charging effect of insulator surfaces like pur spinel (MgAl2O4) during 1.1, 5 and 15 keV. The results showed that the fundamental parameter controlling the charging kinetic is the current density J0. At low energies 1.1 and 5 keV, two different kinds of self-regulated regime (σ=1) were observed as a function of current density. At 15 keV energy, the electron emission appears to be stimulated by the current density, due to the Poole-Frenkel effect.