PROBABILISTIC DESCRIPTION OF PARTICLE-TRANSPORT .3. INELASTIC-SCATTERING

We extend our probabilistic model of quasielastic particle transport to include possible inelastic scatterings of the particles in the bulk of the studied media. We show that this extended model can be used to describe different types of experiments involving electrons that go through or are reflected by a plane-parallel layer deposited on a substrate. In particular, we reanalyze the experimental results of low-energy (10 eV) electron transmission through solid xenon and solid molecular nitrogen. This analysis shows that the extended model is consistent with the quasielastic one, but is more powerful since we can now determine both the elastic and inelastic electron mean free paths. The analysis allows one to study the threshold creation of excitons that can be observed at about 8.5 and 9.5 eV in solid xenon, and around 7.5 eV in solid molecular nitrogen. © 1990 The American Physical Society.