Missing spots in low-energy electron-diffraction patterns

Abstract

A method for the deduction of structural information from the regular distribution of zero-intensity reflections, or missing spots, in LEED (low-energy electron-diffraction) patterns is described. The method applies to the cases in which LEED spots are missing at all incident electron energies and angles. Applications are discussed for the cases of C{001}2×1 (for which a structural model is derived), Si{001}2×2 (which is found to be inconsistent with the missing-spot pattern observed), and $\mathrm{Ge}\mathrm{}\left\{111\right\}c(2\mathrm{}\times 8)$ [which is shown to be consistent with experiment, while a $p(2\mathrm{}\times 8)$ structure is not].