An experimental investigation of the reflection of low energy electrons from surfaces of 2H-MoS2

Abstract

Abstract Experiments are described in which a new technique—total current spectroscopy (TCS)—has been used to investigate the energy dependence of the reflection of low-energy electrons from clean surfaces of the naturally occurring mineral molybdenite (2H-MoS2). A theory involving both elastic and inelastic scattering of electrons is applied to a band structure calculated for molybdenite by Mattheiss (1973 a, b). With relatively few approximations the results of numerical calculations for a TCS spectrum from molybdenite agree surprisingly well with experiment. It is suggested that TCS will prove to be a convenient and sensitive tool for the probing of energy structures in other solid surfaces. For the transition-metaldichalcogenide series it should be possible to observe systematic changes in TCS spectra associated with changes in band structure, and subsequently to predict details in the density-of-states distributions using iterative computer procedures.