Properties of the Nonspecular Low-Energy Electron Diffraction Beams Scattered by the (100) Face of Face-Centered-Cubic Metal Single Crystals

Abstract

The intensities of the nonspecular low-energy electron beams diffracted from the Al (100) and Pd (100) surfaces were measured as a function of electron energy in the range 5-200 eV at room temperature. The experimental results were correlated with $I_{h{k}^{-}}\mathrm{eV}$ curves which were obtained from Ni(100), Cu(100), Ag(100), and Au(100) surfaces. Single- and double-diffraction conditions were adequate to compute the positions of most of the maxima. The double-diffraction condition $2{\mathbf{K}}_z={\mathbf{G}}_z$ appears to be especially important at low electron energies. The intensities and shapes of the diffraction peaks are strongly influenced by the atomic potential.