Electron beam probing of insulators

Electron beam irradiation and charge injection associated by selfconsistent charge transport in insulating samples are described by means of an electron-hole flight-drift model (FDM) implemented by an iterative computer simulation [1,2]. Ballistic scattering and transport of secondary electrons and holes is followed by electron and hole drift, their possible recombination and/or trapping in shallow and deep traps. Furthermore a detrapping by the temperature- and field-dependent Poole-Frenkel-effect becomes possible allowing even a charge hopping transport. In this context a special surface layer has been installed to investigate surface leakage currents, see Fig.1.