High-energy electron diffraction on Cu(111) measured with low-energy Auger electrons: theory and experiment

Abstract

Electrons with kinetic energies between 600 eV and 1.5 keV have been diffracted at the surface of a Cu(111) crystal. The intensity of the electron wavefield within the crystal has been measured using low-energy Cu M 2,3VV Auger electrons integrated over a large solid angle. The results are well reproduced by single-scattering calculations. We show that this technique is chemically selective as well as sensitive to the crystal structure and that it is essentially the time reversal of X-ray photoelectron diffraction but in general more surface-sensitive than the latter. It is therefore well suited to study epitaxial growth and interdiffusion.