PERGAMON

Radiation Physics
and
Chemistry
Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

Applicability of the condensed-random-walk Monte Carlo

method at low energies in high-Z materials
Martin J. Berger *
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
Received 22 October 1997; accepted 9 January 1998

Abstract
The predictions of several Monte Carlo codes were compared with each other and with experimental results
pertaining to the penetration of through gold foils of electrons incident with energies from 128 to 8 keV. The main
purpose was to demonstrate that reection and transmission coecients, for number and energy, can be estimated
reliably with a simple Monte Carlo code based on the condensed-random-walk and continuous-slowing-down
approximations. # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The penetration, diusion and slowing down of electrons is the result of a very large number of Coulomb
interactions. To reduce the large computing eort
involved in the simulation of these interactions, Monte
Carlo methods for calculating the transport of electrons through matter often use the condensed-randomwalk (CRW) method. The electron tracks to be simulated are divided into many segments (steps) such that
an appreciable number of interactions occur in each
step. One multiple-scattering deection and one energy
loss are sampled for each step. The CRW methods can
be further simplied by limiting random sampling to
elastic collisions and using the continuous-slowingdown approximation (CSDA), in which the electrons
are assumed to lose energy along their track at a rate
given by the stopping power.
The lower the initial electron energy, the smaller is
the number of Coulomb interactions which the electrons make in the course of slowing down to rest and
the more the advantage of the CRW method shrinks.
For the users of general-purpose Monte Carlo codes
based on the CRW method such as ETRAN (Seltzer,
1991) or the TIGER series (Halbleib et al., 1991), it is

* Corresponding author. Fax: +1-301-869-7682.

of interest to know the limits of applicability of the

method at low energies. This question has been raised
by Ballinger et al. (1992) and by Akkerman and
Gibrekhterman (1985) who recommended abandoning
the CRW method for a high-Z medium such as gold
for initial electron energies below 50 keV.
The purpose of the present work was to develop
further evidence on the accuracy of the CRW method
for electrons with initial energies from 128 to 8 keV
traversing a high-Z material (gold). This investigation
was done with a simple Monte Carlo code, MTRAN,
which uses the condensed-random-walk and continuous-slowing-down approximations. The output from
MTRAN consists of reection and transmission coecients, which were the focus of interest, and also
includes energy spectra and angular distributions of
the reected and transmitted electrons. MTRAN was
used because it runs faster and is a more exible tool
than the general-purpose CRW codes.
The accuracy of MTRAN was tested in three ways:
(a) by comparison with results from another new
Monte Carlo code, ITRAN, that uses the continuousslowing-down approximation and simulates all individual elastic collisions; (b) by comparison with the
Monte Carlo code LEEPS of Fernandez-Varea et al.
(1996) that samples all individual elastic-scattering
deections and energy losses and (c) by comparison

0969-806X/98/$19.00 # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

PII: S 0 9 6 9 - 8 0 6 X ( 9 8 ) 0 0 1 0 1 - 7

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M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

with experimental reection and transmission coecients.

It will be shown that there is good agreement
between the reection and transmission coecients
from MTRAN, ITRAN and LEEPS and from the general-purpose code ETRAN. The agreement with experimental results is reasonably satisfactory, but the
comparisons are complicated by the fact that the
measured reection and transmission coecients
include small contributions from secondary electrons
with energies as small as 50 eV, whereas the MTRAN,
ITRAN and LEEPS codes do not.

2. Elastic scattering cross sections

Elastic scattering cross sections were obtained from
the database ELAST (Berger et al., 1993) generated
with a computer code RELEL (Riley, 1974; Riley et
al., 1975). This code carries out a partial wave analysis
involving the numerical solution of the Dirac equation
for elastic scattering by a static, screened Coulomb potential. Riley has shown that for energies as low as 1
keV it is suciently accurate to use such a static potential, without applying polarization and exchange
corrections. The screened potential used in the preparation of database ELAST was derived from electron
density distributions generated by a relativistic
HartreeFock code of Desclaux (1975).
It would have been possible to take into account
solid-state eects by using the RELEL code with a
screened Coulomb potential truncated at one half the
distance to the next closest atom, using the mun-tin
models of Raith (1968) or of Ziegler et al. (1985).
However, the resulting decrease of the cross sections
compared with those for free atoms is conned to
extremely small angles, so that the transport (momentum transfer) cross section remains practically
unchanged. As a result the use of the mun-tin model
would not signicantly change calculated reection
and transmission coecients.

experimental optical data. The adopted curve of stopping-power versus energy is compared in Fig. 1 with
the curve from Bethe's theory only. Stopping powers
and CSDA ranges for gold are listed in Table 1.
Stopping powers for low-energy electrons have also
been determined by various other authors, including
Fernandez-Varea et al. (1993), whose calculations,
though diering in details, leads to results for gold
which, between 10 and 1 keV, agree with those of
Ashley to within 1 to 2%. Fernandez-Varea et al. tted
their stopping powers for Al, Si, Cu and Au between
10 and 1 keV by a formula that is similar to that of
Bethe's theory but includes two disposable tting parameters, a4 and a5:
dE=dx 0:30707Z=AlogT=I 0:5*1 log 2
a4 Z R=T a5 Z R=T 2 ,

where Z and A are atomic number and weight, T is

the energy, I is the mean excitation energy and R
(=13.6 eV) is the Rydberg energy. (Another formula,
with parameters a1 and a2, is available for the inverse
mean free path between inelastic collisions.) As shown
in Fig. 2, a4(Z) and a5(Z) are nearly linear functions of
log(Z), so that it is easy to obtain stopping powers for
materials with other atomic numbers by interpolation
or extrapolation.
4. Monte Carlo code ITRAN
The probability of elastic scattering per unit path
length, m(T), in units of cm2/g, is given by
mT Na =A1 1=Z sT ,

3. Stopping powers
Stopping power tabulations based on Bethe's theory,
for example from ICRU Report 37 (International
Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements,
1984), are the standard source of data for transport
calculations. However, below about 10 keV Bethe's
formula is no longer accurate and one must rely on
low-energy treatments. Stopping powers below 10 keV
were taken from the calculations of Ashley (1990)
based on a generalized oscillator-strength model and

Fig. 1. Electron stopping power of gold. The dotted curve is

calculated from Bethe's theory, with a mean excitation energy
I = 790 eV. The solid curve represents the stopping powers
adopted in the present work and is based on the Bethe curve
above 20 keV and the results of Ashley (1990) below 10 keV.

M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

where s(T) is the total elastic scattering cross section

at energy T and Na is Avogadro's constant. The factor
(1 + 1/Z) is included to take into account, approximately, the inelastic scattering of the incident electron
by Z atomic electrons. Let L(T) = dE/dx denote the
stopping power. The average number of collisions
which an electron makes while slowing down from
energy T0 to T is given by
T0

QT, T0

mT 0 =LT 0 dT,

and the residual range at energy T is

r0 T

T0
0

1=LT 0 dT:

Suppose an electron has made an elastic collision at

energy T'. The probability that the next collision will
occur when the energy is between T and T + dT is
given by
T 0
5
mT =LT dT expf mT0=LT0 dT0g:
T

Thus the variable

qT, T 0

T 0
T

mT0=LT0 dT0

is distributed exponentially, as exp(q). In order to

sample the energy at which the next collision occurs,
one sets q(T, T') = log(r), where r is a random number and solves for T as a function of q and T'. This
process of slowing down and diusion can simulated
by interpolation in a table of three columns (energy T,
collision number Q and residual range r0). The initial
part of such a table, for 128 keV electrons in gold, can
be seen in Table 2.
One selects an initial energy T' and interpolates in
Table 2 to obtain an initial collision number Q(T', T0)
and residual range r0(T'). Then one samples a value of
q from an exponential distribution. The new collision
number is Q = Q' + q. By interpolation in Table 2 the
new energy T and range r0(T) are obtained. The path
length traveled by the electron (in a straight line) to
the collision point is calculated as the dierence of residual ranges, r0(T') r0(T) and is used to calculate the
point in space at which the collision occurs. An angular deection is then sampled from the pre-stored elastic-scattering histogram for energy T which, together
with a random azimuthal deection, determines the
new direction of the electron. The entire procedure is
continued until the electron energy falls below a specied cut-o value.

193

Table 1
Stopping powers and ranges for electrons in gold. Obtained
by combining radiative stopping powers and collision stopping powers above 20 keV, from ICRU (1984), with collision
stopping powers below 10 keV from Ashley (1990)
T
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
4.50
5.00
5.50
6.00
7.00
8.00
9.00
10.00
12.50
15.00
17.50
20.00
25.00
30.00
35.00
40.00
45.00
50.00
55.00
60.00
70.00
80.00
90.00
100.00
125.00
150.00
175.00
200.00
250.00

SC

SR

ST

29.969
27.502
25.518
23.922
22.567
20.301
18.478
16.983
15.735
14.679
13.783
13.021
12.371
11.316
10.456
9.709
9.058
7.766
6.827
6.128
5.595
4.832
4.284
3.870
3.545
3.283
3.067
2.885
2.730
2.480
2.286
2.132
2.006
1.773
1.614
1.499
1.412
1.291

0.004
0.005
0.006
0.007
0.007
0.009
0.010
0.011
0.012
0.013
0.014
0.015
0.016
0.017
0.018
0.019
0.020
0.022
0.024
0.025
0.027
0.029
0.030
0.032
0.033
0.034
0.035
0.036
0.037
0.039
0.041
0.042
0.043
0.047
0.049
0.052
0.054
0.058

29.973
27.507
25.523
23.929
22.575
20.310
18.488
16.995
15.747
14.692
13.797
13.036
12.386
11.333
10.474
9.729
9.078
7.788
6.851
6.154
5.622
4.861
4.353
3.902
3.579
3.318
3.102
2.922
2.768
2.519
2.327
2.174
2.049
1.819
1.663
1.550
1.466
1.349

RG
0.0344
0.0431
0.0525
0.0627
0.0734
0.0968
0.1226
0.1509
0.1815
0.2144
0.2495
0.2868
0.3262
0.4107
0.5026
0.6017
0.7082
1.0064
1.3496
1.7354
2.1611
3.1213
4.2156
5.4363
6.7761
8.2287
9.7885
11.450
13.210
17.004
21.140
25.590
30.332
43.326
57.731
73.326
89.931
125.60

T = electron energy (keV).

SC = collision stopping power (MeV cm2/g).
SR = radiative stopping power (MeV cm2/g).
ST = total stopping power, (MeV cm2/g).
RG = csda range (mg/cm2).

The sampling of deection angles is done with the

aliasing method of Kronmal and Peterson (1979)
which requires only one random number and one comparison per selection, regardless of the number of bins
in the histogram. Random numbers are generated with
the fast random-number generator MZRAN of
Marsaglia and Zaman (1994), which has a period

194

M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

Fig. 2. Coecients a4 and a5 in the tting formula for electron stopping power of Fernandez-Varea et al. (1993).

approximately equal to 1028 and passes stringent tests

of randomness.

5. Monte Carlo code MTRAN

MTRAN is similar to ITRAN in regard to elastic
scattering cross sections, stopping powers and random
sampling techniques. An energy grid is adopted which
in turn determines the lengths of the track segments
(steps) between successive energies. Histograms for the
sampling of angular multiple-scattering deections are
computed in advance for the mid-point energy of each
step. The construction of electron tracks from the
sampled deections is done as described in Berger
(1963) or Seltzer (1991), with an important exception
discussed below regarding the point in each step where
the angular multiple-scattering deection is allowed to
occur.
Let T1, T2, . . . , Tn, . . . be the chosen energy grid
and sn be the path length (step) traversed by an electron as it slows down from Tn to Tn + 1. Let yn be the
multiple-scattering deection for step sn. The average
deection cosine given by
hcos yn i exp2pNa =A1 1=Z
 1 cos yds=dOsin y dy,

where ds/d is the elastic scattering cross section at the

average energy within the grid interval.
The main body of transport calculations for gold
described in this paper were made with a standard
energy grid with such that the average deection angle
per step, more precisely, arccos(hcos yni), is nearly constant and equal to 208 for all values of n. This requires
1208 steps to cover the energy region from 128 to 1
keV. Additional calculations were made with two coarser energy grids, one of which includes every second

energy of the standard grid (604 steps) and the other

every fourth energy (302 steps).
In a naive application of the CRW method, multiple-scattering deections are allowed to take place at
the end of each step. This has the consequence that the
electrons penetrate too deeply into the target, so that
reection coecients are slightly underestimated and
transmission coecients overestimated. Seltzer (1991)
suggested the possibility of a random-hinging procedure in which the multiple-scattering deection is
allowed to occur at a point chosen at random within
each step. Salvat et al. (1996) adopted this scheme in
their electronpositron transport code PENELOPE.
Calculations with MTRAN were done rst without
and then with the random hinging procedure. With
this option the electron is made to traverse a random
fraction of each step in a straight line and a test is
made whether a reection or transmission boundary
has been crossed. A polar multiple-scattering deection
and a random azimuthal deection are then sampled
and the new direction of the electron is determined.
The electron is then allowed to travel along a straight
line in the new direction for the remainder of the step
and again it is tested whether a reection or transmission boundary has been crossed.
The CRW method has the disadvantage that many
dierent track segmentation and sampling schemes
could be chosen whose relative merits are dicult to
determine a priori. By contrast, the ITRAN code in
which all elastic collisions are sampled, has no such
ambiguities. The accuracy of the CRW method, the
adequacy of the track segmentation scheme and the
advantage of the random hinging procedure, will be
demonstrated in Section 5 comparing results from
MTRAN and ITRAN.
Table 3 presents, for selected intervals of the 1208step grid, the initial and nal energy in the step, the
step size, the average number of elastic collisions in the
step and the total number of collisions made by the
electron in the course of slowing from the selected initial energy down to 1 keV. The average number of
collisions per step is so small that one is really in a
plural-scattering rather than a multiple-scattering
regime. Below about 10 keV the average number of
collisions is less than 1 per step. This situation is typiTable 2
Collision numbers and residual ranges
T (keV)

Q(T, T0)

r0(T) (g/cm2)

128.000
127.262
126.530
125.801

0.00000
23.09309
46.05937
68.89948

4.49832E 02
4.45737E 02
4.41677E 02
4.37653E 02

M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

195

Table 3
Characteristics of the condensed random walk used in MTRAN to calculate the reection and transmission of electrons by gold
foils. 1208 steps cover the energy region from 128 to 1 keV. The step sizes are chosen so that the inverse of the average deection
cosine per step is approximately 208
Step #

Energy
initial (keV)

1
121
240
355
466
572
671
763
847
925
996
1060
1117
1167
1208

128.000
90.510
64.000
45.255
32.000
22.627
16.000
11.314
8.000
5.657
4.000
2.828
2.000
1.414
1.009

nal (keV)
127.631
90.249
63.809
45.125
31.897
22.549
15.942
11.269
7.965
5.630
3.980
2.812
1.987
1.403
1.004

cal for low-energy electrons in a high-Z material and

results from the condition that the average deection
angle per step should not be too large. In principle it
might be most ecient to switch, at a suitable energy,
from a CRW treatment to an analog treated such as
that used in ITRAN. However, the point of view
taken here is that it is simpler and involves no signicant loss of accuracy or eciency, to retain the CRW
method for all energies.
As discussed in Berger and Wang (1988), even
when the average number of collisions per step is

Step size

Collisions

(g/cm2)

per step

2.0521E 04
1.2036E 04
7.1714E 05
4.2255E 05
2.4757E 05
1.5082E 05
8.7950E 06
5.3211E 06
3.2958E 06
2.1157E 06
1.2895E 06
8.5274E 07
5.8776E 07
4.2327E 07
2.9072E 07

11.56
8.27
6.06
4.40
3.18
2.38
1.69
1.24
0.93
0.72
0.52
0.41
0.33
0.28
0.22

total
3922.75
2741.22
1899.95
1306.84
892.26
604.48
405.98
271.41
180.57
118.17
75.13
45.58
25.00
10.42
0.22

quite small it is not dicult to calculate the multiple-scattering distribution accurately. It suces to
express the distribution as the sum of three components: (a) unscattered electrons, represented by a
delta function; (b) once-scattered electrons, represented by the single-scattering cross section itself
and (c) electrons scattered at least twice, represented
by a Legendre series from the theory of Goudsmit
and Saunderson (1940).
Fig. 3 shows the number of elastic collisions made
by an electron in gold in the course of slowing down
to 1 keV, as a function of the initial energy T0. Also
shown is the number of steps of the condensed random
walk, for three cases: for the grid with an average
deection of 208 per step and for the two coarser grids
with average deection angles of 288 and 398. The
number of steps is actually greater than the number of
collisions for the 208 grid when T0<25 keV and for
the 288 grid when T0<9 keV. Under these conditions
the CRW method is inecient but retains its accuracy,
as will be demonstrated in Section 5, even for T0 as
low as 8 keV.

6. Comparison of results from MTRAN and ITRAN

Fig. 3. Number of elastic collisions and number of steps of

the condensed random walk, for an electron slowing down
from initial energy T0 to 1 keV. The three curves shown pertain to energy grids such that the arc-cosine of the mean
deection cosine per step is equal to 208, 288 or 398.

A systematic set of comparisons was made for electrons incident normally, with energies of 128, 64, 32,
16 and 8 keV, on gold foils. Samples of 1 million
Monte Carlo histories were analyzed for each initial
energy, using the ITRAN code, and using the
MTRAN code without and with the random hinging

196

M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

procedure. The principal results consist of number and

energy reection coecients for a foil of saturation
thickness and of number and energy transmission coefcients for foils of various thicknesses. Angular distributions and energy spectra of the electron emerging
from the foil were also obtained.
Table 4 shows the percentage amounts by which the
reection and transmission coecients obtained with

MTRAN dier from those obtained with ITRAN.

Also shown are the coecients themselves (from
ITRAN) and their statistical standard deviations (for
number transmission and reection only). These standard deviations can serve as indicators of statistical
signicance of the MTRANITRAN dierences.
Without the random-hinging procedure, the transmission coecients from MTRAN are too large by

Table 4
Dierences between transmission and reection coecients for gold calculated with ITRAN and MTRAN. Results are based on 1
million Monte Carlo histories run with each code. The results pertain to 128-, 64-, 32-, 16- and 8-keV electrons incident normally
on gold foils. The csda ranges in gold are given in parentheses beneath each energy
x/r0

128 keV (0.04498 g/cm2)

TN

0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
0.35
0.40
x/r0

0.7895
0.5897
0.4294
0.2831
0.1654
0.0842
0.0367
0.0131

STD

0.05
0.08
0.12
0.16
0.22
0.33
0.51
0.87

(a)

(b)

2.0
2.1
2.6
2.8
3.3
4.2
4.9
6.0

0.1
0.2
0.4
0.7
0.9
1.1
1.4
2.1

128 keV (0.04498 g/cm2)

TE

0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
0.35
0.40

0.7493
0.5075
0.3267
0.1909
0.0994
0.0452
0.0176
0.0056

Energy
(keV)

RN

128
64
32
16
8

DIFF

0.5151
0.5065
0.4918
0.4738
0.4545

DIFF

STD

0.10
0.10
0.10
0.11
0.11

(a)

(b)

2.1
2.3
2.8
3.1
3.7
4.5
5.3
5.9

0.2
0.3
0.5
0.7
1.0
1.3
1.6
1.3

DIFF
(a)

(b)

2.0
2.2
2.0
2.7
2.3

0.2
0.3
0.1
0.3
0.7

64 keV (0.01469 g/cm2) 32 keV (0.00469 g/cm2) 16 keV (0.00150 g/ m2) 8 keV (0.000503 g/ m2)
TN

0.7999
0.6074
0.4508
0.3057
0.1856
0.1001
0.0463
0.0182

STD

0.05
0.08
0.11
0.15
0.21
0.30
0.45
0.73

DIFF
(a)

(b)

2.0
2.3
2.6
3.1
3.8
4.2
5.1
5.8

0.2
0.4
0.6
1.0
1.3
1.7
2.7
3.0

TN

0.8143
0.6335
0.4818
0.3391
0.2157
0.1237
0.0626
0.0272

STD

0.05
0.08
0.10
0.14
0.19
0.27
0.39
0.60

DIFF
(a)

(b)

1.9
2.2
2.4
2.6
3.4
3.8
4.4
5.5

0.1
0.2
0.3
0.6
1.2
1.1
1.3
3.0

TN

0.8268
0.6620
0.5175
0.3780
0.2539
0.1550
0.0853
0.0415

STD

0.05
0.07
0.10
0.13
0.17
0.23
0.33
0.48

DIFF
(a)

(b)

2.1
2.4
2.8
3.2
3.8
4.6
5.0
5.5

0.2
0.3
0.4
0.6
0.9
1.4
1.7
1.6

TN

STD

DIFF
(a) (b)

0.8349
0.6856
0.5496
0.4144
0.2900
0.1871
0.1102
0.0584

0.04
0.07
0.09
0.12
0.16
0.21
0.28
0.40

1.8
2.0
2.1
2.4
2.5
3.1
3.2
6.0

0.3
0.5
0.7
1.0
1.4
1.5
2.1
2.6

64 keV (0.01469 g/cm2) 32 keV (0.00469 g/cm2) 16 keV (0.00150 g/ m2) 8 keV (0.000503 g/ m2)
TE

DIFF

0.7619
0.5282
0.3485
0.2105
0.1143
0.0552
0.0229
0.0081
RE

0.4048
0.3984
0.3849
0.3671
0.3485

(a)

(b)

2.2
2.6
2.9
3.4
4.0
4.6
5.1
5.6

0.3
0.5
0.7
1.1
1.5
1.9
2.6
2.9

TE

0.7777
0.5559
0.3780
0.2376
0.1358
0.0699
0.0317
0.0124

DIFF
(a)

(b)

2.0
2.4
2.7
3.0
3.6
4.0
4.7
5.7

0.2
0.3
0.4
0.7
1.2
1.2
1.6
2.9

TE

0.7912
0.5856
0.4117
0.2693
0.1624
0.0892
0.0441
0.0192

DIFF
(a)

(b)

2.2
2.7
3.1
3.6
4.3
4.9
5.3
5.6

0.3
0.4
0.5
0.7
1.0
1.5
1.7
2.0

TE

STD

DIFF
(a) (b)

0.7984
0.6080
0.4402
0.2981
0.1876
0.1090
0.0579
0.0276

1.9
2.3
2.5
2.9
3.1
3.6
3.8
6.3

0.4
0.6
0.9
1.2
1.6
1.9
2.4
2.7

DIFF
(a)

(b)

2.7
2.9
2.8
3.5
3.3

0.2
0.3
0.1
0.3
0.8

x/r0: Thickness of gold foil, in units of range.

TN: number transmission coecient from ITRAN.
TE: energy transmission coecient from ITRAN.
RN: number reection coecient from ITRAN (x/r = 0.5).
RE: energy reection coecient from ITRAN (x/r = 0.5).
STD: percent standard deviation of TN or RN.
DIFF: percentage amounts by which the transmission or reection coecients from MTRAN dier from those from ITRAN; (a)
when multiple-scattering deections are allowed to occur in MTRAN at the end of each step and (b) when they are allowed to
occur at a random point in each step.

M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

amounts that increase with foil thickness and become

as large as 6% for foil thicknesses of 0.4r0 (where r0 is
the CSDA range). The reection coecients, on the
other hand, are too small by about 2%. With the random-hinging procedure the errors still go in the same
direction, but are several times smaller, amounting to
only a fraction of a percent, even for an incident electron energy as low as 8 keV.
The results in Table 4 were all obtained with step
sizes in MTRAN corresponding to those shown in
Table 3, with an average deection angle of 208 per
step. In Table 5 the percentage amounts are shown by
which the number reection and transmission coecients from MTRAN (with the random-hinging
option) dier from those from ITRAN when a coarser
energy grid is used. With an average deection of 288
per step, the errors due to the use of the CRW method
are quite small and are barely dierent from those for
the 208 case. Even with a 398 deection per step, the
errors are still acceptably small except for the thickest
foils.
Table 5
Percentage amounts by which the reection and transmission
coecients obtained with MTRAN dier from those obtained
with ITRAN. Three sets of results are given, corresponding to
step sizes for MTRAN such that the inverse of the mean
deection cosine per step is approximately 20, 28 or 398

197

Table 6
Comparison of computing time required by the Monte Carlo
codes ITRAN and MTRAN to generate 1 million electron
histories and to calculate reection and transmission coecients. Three sets of results are reported for MTRAN corresponding to condensed-random-walk step sizes such that
inverse of the average deection cosine per step is approximately 20, 28 or 398. The comparisons pertain to electrons
incident normally on gold foils with ten thicknesses up to one
half range. The results were obtained on a PC with a 166Mhz Pentium processor
Energy (keV)

Time (min)

ITRAN

128
64
32
16
8

289.20
143.41
69.77
33.44
15.77

MTRAN
208

288

398

50.52
40.58
31.02
22.27
16.91

26.33
21.43
16.80
12.39
8.42

13.67
11.19
8.88
6.66
4.64

In Table 6 the computing times are listed which are

required to generate and process 1 million Monte
Carlo histories for various initial electron energies, for
ITRAN as well as for MTRAN with various energy
grids. In general MTRAN has a considerable time advantage, even for low initial electron energies.

128 keV (Reection)

Transmission
x/r0
0.050
0.100
0.150
0.200
0.250
0.300
0.350
0.400

208
0.2

288
0.04

398
0.2

0.1
0.2
0.4
0.7
0.9
1.1
1.4
2.1

0.2
0.1
0.1
0.3
0.5
0.5
1.6
3.1

0.3
0.5
0.8
1.4
2.0
3.0
4.4
6.9

16 keV (Reection)

Transmission
x/r0
0.050
0.100
0.150
0.200
0.250
0.300
0.350
0.400

208
0.3

288
0.4

398
0.5

0.2
0.3
0.4
0.6
0.9
1.4
1.7
1.6

0.3
0.3
0.5
0.7
0.9
1.3
1.7
1.5

0.5
0.7
0.9
1.2
1.7
2.5
3.0
3.9

7. Comparison of results from MTRAN, LEEPS and

ETRAN
Table 7 compares number and energy transmission
coecients for incident 128-keV electrons, calculated
with MTRAN and ETRAN. It should be noted that
ETRAN does not use the random hinging procedure,
but has a compensatory renement absent in
MTRAN, namely, the explicit inclusion of spatial multiple-scattering deections in the construction of electron tracks.
Two sets of ETRAN results are shown which were
calculated (i) taking into account energy-loss straggling
and secondary electrons and (ii) using CSDA and
neglecting secondary electrons. The MTRAN results
agree well with the ETRAN results of type (ii). There
is a non-negligible energy-loss straggling eect for
thick foils, as indicated by the dierence between the
ETRAN results (i) and (ii).
The treatment of energy-loss straggling in ETRAN
involves a combination of the energy-loss distribution
of Landau (1944) with a Gaussian distribution representing a binding correction. As discussed by Seltzer
(1991) this approximation was designed for use at high
energies and is already of doubtful accuracy in gold at

198

M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

Table 7
Comparison of transmission coecients calculated with the MTRAN code (1 million histories) and the ETRAN code (100,000 histories). Results pertain to 128-keV electrons incident normally on a gold foil and are given as function of foil thickness in units of
range
x/r0

0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
0.35
0.40

Number transmission coecient

Energy transmission coecient

MTRAN

ETRAN

MTRAN

ETRAN

CSDA

CSDA

STRAG

CSDA

CSDA

STRAG

0.7984
0.5910
0.4310
0.2850
0.1668
0.0852
0.0371
0.0134

0.7899
0.5939
0.4334
0.2864
0.1679
0.0862
0.0384
0.0138

0.7885
0.5908
0.4281
0.2847
0.1709
0.0931
0.0451
0.0190

0.7506
0.5090
0.3283
0.1923
0.1003
0.0458
0.0178
0.0057

0.7412
0.5041
0.3245
0.1907
0.0997
0.0462
0.0182
0.0058

0.7401
0.5039
0.3262
0.1958
0.1075
0.0536
0.0240
0.0096

CSDA: Calculated in continuous-slowing-down approximation, neglecting secondary electrons.

STRAG: Calculated taking into account energy-loss straggling and secondary electrons.

128 keV, so that the indicated straggling eects may be

an overestimate. At energies below about 100 keV in
gold ETRAN should only be used in the CSDA mode.
The transport code LEEPS of Fernandez-Varea et
al. (1996) involves the sampling not only of all elastic
collisions with atoms but also of all inelastic collisions
with atomic electrons. As shown in Fig. 6, transmission coecients from MTRAN, for electrons with
energies of 25 and 15 keV on gold foils, agree closely
with those from LEEPS, except for the largest foil
thicknesses at which they are slightly too low, as
expected because of the neglect of energy-loss straggling.

Fig. 4. Spectra of primary transmitted and reected electrons

from a gold foil, calculated with MTRAN. The dotted
straight lines are extrapolations used to estimate the contributions to the reection and transmission coecient from primary electrons emerging with energies less than 1 keV.

8. Low-energy correction for primary electrons

The ITRAN and MTRAN codes take into account
only electrons emerging from the foil with energies
above 1 keV. By plotting the energy spectrum of emergent electrons, one can extrapolate the spectrum below
1 keV, as illustrated in Fig. 4 for 9.3-keV electrons
reected from or transmitted through a 0.25 mg/cm2
gold foil. Fig. 5 shows the corresponding percent
increase of the number transmission coecients for the
same case, as a function of the foil thickness.
Table 8 gives the estimated contribution to number
reection and transmission coecients by electrons

Fig. 5. Estimated increase of the number transmission coecient due to primary electrons with energy less than 1 keV, as
function of foil thickness. These results pertain to 9.3 keV
electrons incident normally on gold foil. The points (w) are
from MTRAN and the solid line is a t to these points.

M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

Table 8
Estimated contribution of primary electrons with energies
below 1 keV to number reection and transmission coecients, for electrons incident normally on a gold foil with a
thickness equal to 40% of the range
Initial
Energy (keV)
9.3
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0

Percent
transmission
2.48
0.84
0.36
0.14
0.17

Contribution to
reection
0.42
0.12
0.05
0.02
0.01

199

with energies smaller than 1 keV for gold foils with a

thickness of 0.4 times the range irradiated by electrons
with electrons with energies from 9.3 to 30 keV. It can
be seen that the low-energy contribution decreases
rapidly as the initial electron energy increases and that
the corrections are larger for transmission than for
reection.
The low-energy correction was applied to the results
from MTRAN for all foil thicknesses and energies,
including those shown ib Fig. 6 and those used in
Section 8 for comparisons with experiments.

Fig. 6. Transmission of 25-keV and 15-keV electrons incident

normally on a gold foil. Solid curves: MTRAN. Points:
LEEPS (Fernandez-Varea et al., 1996).

Fig. 7. Transmission of 9.3-keV electrons incident normally

on a gold foil. Solid curve: MTRAN; Solid points (.): LEEPS
(Fernandez-Varea et al., 1996). Crosses (): ETRAN. Hollow
points (w): measured by Reimer and Drescher (1977).

Fig. 8. Comparison of measured transmission curves of

Reimer and Drescher (1977) (dotted curves) with results from
MTRAN (solid curves), for electrons incident normally on
gold foils. The theoretical curves have been corrected to take
into account the contributions from primary electrons transmitted with energies less than 1 keV. (a) Electron energies of
9.3, 11, 13.4 and 17.3 keV and (b) electron energies of 25.2,
32.4, 41.5 and 62.1 keV.

200

M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

9. Comparisons with experimental results

In Fig. 7 transmission coecients for 9.3-keV electrons incident normally on a gold foil, obtained with
MTRAN, LEEPS and ETRAN are compared with
measurements by Reimer and Drescher (1977). A
special CSDA version of ETRAN was used, with
exactly the same stopping powers, ranges and multiplescattering histograms as those used in MTRAN. All
three sets of theoretical results are in good agreement,
but are lower than the corresponding experimental
results of Reimer and Drescher (1977).
More extensive comparisons between the results
from MTRAN and the measurements of Reimer and
Drescher are shown in Fig. 8(a) at 9.3, 11.0, 13.4 and

Fig. 9. Comparison of measured transmission curves of

Neubert and Rogaschewski (1984) (dotted curves and crosses)
with results from MTRAN (solid curves), for electrons incident normally on gold foils. The theoretical curves have been
corrected to take into account the contributions from primary
electrons transmitted with energies less than 1 keV. (a)
Electron energies of 15, 20, 25 and 30 keV and (b) electron
energies of 35, 40, 50 and 60 keV.

17.3 keV and in Fig. 8(b) at 25.2, 32.4, 41.5 and 62.1
keV. The calculated curves include transmitted primary
electrons only, whereas the measurements also include
all secondary electrons with energies above 50 eV. At
the four lowest energies the measured curves lie signicantly above the calculated transmission curves,
whereas at the four highest energies the agreement is
fairly good. Exploratory calculations with the ETRAN
code indicate that the contributions due to secondary
electrons might increase the calculated transmission by
a few percent, but such estimates are very rough. In
any case it appears unlikely that the neglect of secondary electrons in MTRAN can account for the observed
discrepancies.
Similar comparisons between the results from
MTRAN and the measurements of Neubert and
Rogaschewski (1984) are made in Fig. 9(a) at 15, 20,
25 and 30 keV, and in Fig. 9(b) at 35, 40, 50 and 60
keV. In this comparison, at the four lowest energies
the measured curves lie slightly below the calculated
curves and at the four highest energies there is again
good agreement.
Fig. 10 compares number transmission curves calculated with MTRAN and measured by Neubert and
Rogaschewski (1984), as functions of the angle of incidence a (between 0 and 808) for 30-keV electrons
transmitted through gold foils of various thickness
(a = 0 means normal incidence). The agreement is
good, except perhaps for the thinnest foil (98 mg/cm2).
Table 9 compares calculated and measured reection
coecients for electron incident on gold foils, at energies from 20 to 60 keV. Calculated coecients are
shown for primary reected electrons and also with a

Fig. 10. Comparison of calculated and measured transmission

curves for 30-keV electrons incident at various angles on a
gold foil. The experimental results (represented by symbols)
are from an experiment by Neubert and Rogaschewski (1984),
and the curves are from MTRAN. The angle a = 0 corresponds to normal incidence.

M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

201

Table 9
Comparisons of number reection coecients for electrons with energies from 20 to 60 keV incident normally on a thick gold foil.
The comparisons include Monte Carlo results from MTRAN and from LEEPS (Fernandez-Varea et al., 1996) and measurements
by Hunger and Kuchler (1979), Drescher et al. (1970) and by Neubert and Rogaschewski (1980)
Energy (keV)
20
Calculations
(1) MTRAN (no sec. el.)
(2) LEEPS (no sec. el.)
(3) LEEPS (with sec. el.)
Experiments
(4) Hunger and Kuchler
(5) Drescher et al.
(6) Neubert and
Rogaschewski

(1)
(2)
(3)
(5)

30

40

50

60

0.479
0.477
0.482

0.490
0.489
0.496

0.496
0.497
0.504

0.501
0.503
0.509

0.504
0.506
0.518

0.485
0.498
0.516

0.489
0.504
0.519

0.494
0.507
0.521

0.498
0.509
0.623

0.503
0.510
0.525

CSDA, no secondary electrons.

Energy-loss straggling included, no secondary electrons.
With contribution from secondary electrons, estimated with use of PENELOPE code (Fernandez-Varea et al., 1996).
and (6) Experiments include secondary electrons down to 50 eV.

contribution from secondary electrons estimated by

Fernandez-Varea et al. using their PENELOPE code.
The measured coecients from Hunger and Kuchler
(1979) are smaller than those from Drescher et al.
(1970), which in turn are smaller than those from
Neubert and Rogaschewski (1980). The dierences
become as large as 6%. It is possible that they are due,
at least partially, to the eects of dierent surface
roughness of the foils in the various experiments. The
calculations agree better with the results of Hunger
and Kuchler and of Drescher et al., than with those of
Neubert and Rogaschewski.

Table 10 deals with the dependence of the reection

coecient on the angle of incidence. The quantity
compared is the ratio of the coecient for an angle of
incidence a to that for normal incidence. For a from 0
to 808, results from MTRAN are compared with experimental results of Neubert and Rogaschewski
(1980) at 20, 40 and 60 keV and of Drescher et al.
(1970) at 25 keV. The agreement is fairly good. The
experimental ratios are somewhat greater than the calculated ratios. The dierences increase with a and
reach to 2 to 4%. This may be due to the fact that the
contributions from secondary electrons increase with a.

Table 10
Ratio of number reection coecient for incidence at angle to that for normal incidence, electrons incident on a gold foil. Results
from MTRAN (based on 1 million histories for each angle) are compared with the measurements
Degree (8)

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
75
80

20 keV

25 keV

40 keV

60 keV

MTRAN

NEU

MTRAN

DRE

MTRAN

NEU

MTRAN

NEU

1.000
1.010
1.034
1.081
1.144
1.227
1.327
1.451
1.525
1.609

1.000
1.006
1.037
1.081
1.147
1.231
1.339
1.486
1.568
1.609

1.000
1.010
1.037
1.082
1.143
1.224
1.323
1.445
1.517
1.599

1.000
1.015
1.040
1.092
1.146
1.224
1.316
1.460
1.536
1.633

1.000
1.007
1.034
1.077
1.137
1.215
1.311
1.426
1.495
1.576

1.000
1.008
1.035
1.081
1.142
1.226
1.332
1.459
1.541
1.637

1.000
1.010
1.034
1.077
1.155
1.210
1.303
1.417
1.484
1.563

1.000
1.006
1.032
1.076
1.137
1.219
1.318
1.444
1.522
1.619

NEU: Neubert and Rogaschewski (1980).

DRE: Drescher et al. (1970).

202

M.J. Berger / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 53 (1998) 191203

10. Conclusions
The condensed-random-walk code MTRAN predicts
number and energy transmission and reection coecients that are in good agreement with coecients
from the code ITRAN which follows all individual
elastic collisions. This has been veried for electrons
incident normally on gold foils with energies from 128
to 8 keV. The use of the random-hinging procedure
results in improved agreement with ITRAN.
The transmission coecients from MTRAN at 25,
15 and 9.3 keV are in good agreement those from
LEEPS. Those at 128 and 9.3 keV agree with those
from ETRAN (run in CSDA mode). The number of
reection coecients from MTRAN (including primary electrons only) at energies from 20 to 60 keV
agree to within 0.5% with those from LEEPS.
The conclusion can be drawn that the use of the
condensed-random-walk Monte Carlo model, in codes
such as MTRAN, ETRAN or the TIGER series, is
justied for the calculation of integral quantities such
as reection and transmission coecients for high-Z
materials, even for initial electron energies as low as 8
keV. One would expect the model also to give reliable
results for the distribution of deposited energy with
depth.
The calculated transmission coecients are in good
agreement with the measurements of Neubert and
Rogaschewski (1984), but are lower than those
measured by Reimer and Drescher (1977). On the
other hand the calculated reection coecients are in
better agreement with the measurements of Drescher et
al. (1970) than with the measurements of Neubert and
Rogaschewski (1980). There appears to be some inconsistency between the results from the two experimental
groups, which makes the question of the agreement of
MTRAN with the measurements is dicult to resolve.
Comparisons with experiments are also obscured by
the contributions from secondary electrons missing
from MTRAN. The lack of reliable cross section for
the production of secondary electrons in high-Z materials (especially in regard to the initial angular distributions), the lack of reliable elastic scattering below 1
keV and the possible occurrence of irregular surface
eects are all obstacles which make it dicult to
extend the calculations at low energies so as to include
secondary electrons in transport codes.
Angular distributions of reected or transmitted
electrons calculated with MTRAN and ITRAN are
similar, within the limits of statistical error and the
CRW method appears adequate for this purpose.
However, the CSDA treatment in MTRAN and
ITRAN makes them unsuitable for calculating accurate spectra of transmitted electrons, but could be
accomplished by CRW codes such as ETRAN or
PENELOPE at high energies, and LEEPS at low ener-

Fig. 11. Energy spectra of reected electrons calculated with

MTRAN (solid histograms) and measured by Darlington
(1975) (dotted histograms), for electrons incident normally on
gold foils.

gies. The energy spectra of reected electrons are less

sensitive to the treatment of energy losses. As shown
in Fig. 11, back-scattered spectra calculated with
MTRAN agree moderately well with experimental
spectra reported by Darlington (1975) for electrons
incident on gold foils with energies of 10, 20 and 30
keV.

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