Estimating the rates of inelastic reactions from current-voltage characteristics

Thefeasibility of estimating the rates of inelastic reactions involving electrons directlyfrom probe current–voltage characteristics is examined. It is shown that for sufficiently high threshold energies, reaction rates may be found with good accuracy from the magnitude of the electron current $i(V_{ik})$ (where $V_{ik} = \varepsilon_{ik}/e$ and $\varepsilon_{ik}$ is the threshold energy for the reaction $i \to k$) and the slope of the current–voltage characteristic at the potential $V_{ik}$.