Electron Scattering by Solids: Determination of the Chemical, Geometrical, Electronic and Vibrational Structure of Surfaces

Abstract

In these notes we examine the use of various experiments, primarily those associated with generic label low-energy-electron diffraction (‘LEED’), to determine the atomic identity, positions, vibrational amplitudes, and electronic structure of ‘atoms’ (i.e., ion-cores immersed in a sea of valence electrons) in the uppermost 1–5 layers of a single-crystal solid. A general survey of mathematical models of the specifically surface microscopic properties of solids is available elsewhere. [1] Furthermore, the construction of an adequate theory [2–6] of the electron-solid scattering phenomena of primary interest to us requires extensive use of modern quantum-field-theory methods with their concommitant algebraic complexity. Thus we focus our attention on the applications of theories of particle-solid scattering to characterize the structure of solid surfaces. We indicate only briefly the ingredients of models of the electronic, geometrical, and vibrational structure of surfaces and the construction of theories of the scattering process.