Abstract
Direct evidence has been obtained for electron tunneling between sputtered ions and the solid surfaces from which they originate. Strong neutralization of the ions is observed whenever the tunneling channel is opened by changing the surface work function so that a crossing of the Fermi level by the Cs level occurs. A tunneling model which takes the spatial dependences of the position and the width of the atomic level into account explains the data successfully.
- Received 29 October 1982
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.50.127
©1983 American Physical Society