ELECTRON INJECTION INTO DENSE NEON - COMPARISON WITH HYDROGEN AND HELIUM

As a probe of the electron-neon fluid surface barrier, hot electrons (~1 eV) obtained from thin-film cold-cathode emitters were injected into neon liquid and dense neon gas at temperatures below 77 K. In neon, at all densities including the liquid, we find a universal characteristic shape for the current attenuation i/i0 vs. E/N, in contrast to the cases of helium and hydrogen. The neon results are discussed in terms of various injection models and interpreted to imply a very long electron thermalization distance and an upper limit for the electron-neon surface barrier of 0.1 eV. © 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation.