Properties of the Specular Low-Energy Electron Beam Scattered by Face-Centered Cubic Metal Single-Crystal Surfaces

Abstract

The intensity, $I_{\text{00l}}$ , of the specularly reflected low‐energy (10–500 eV) electron beam was monitored for the different low‐index crystal faces of palladium, platinum, and lead as a function of electron energy (eV). The properties of the $I_{\text{00l}}$ (eV) curves were investigated as a function of temperature, crystal orientation, scattering angle, and the appearance of different ordered surface structures. For clean surfaces, the positions of the intensity peaks were insensitive to variation of temperature. They were found to change markedly, however, with variation of the scattering angle and the formation of new surface structures on the Pd (100) face. A “reduced” electron‐energy scale was used to compare the intensity curves obtained for the different face‐centered cubic metal surfaces. The same crystal face of the different metals yields similar intensity curves. Correlations between intensity curves from different surfaces of the same metal have also been pointed out. The occurrences of maxima and minima in the intensity of the specularly scattered low‐energy electron beam are primarily determined by the periodicity of the crystal lattice rather than the nature of the crystal potential. However, the relative intensities of the diffraction features are sensitive to variations in the crystal potential.