Observations of Surface Temporal Fluctuations by Low Energy Electron Diffraction

Journal Article · Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1998 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.3175· OSTI ID:662296

Conrad, E H; Menzel, A; Kiriukhin, S ^[1]; Tringides, M C ^[2]

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1. School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30032 (United States)
2. Ames Labs, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011 (United States)

We present evidence for equilibrium temporal fluctuations in a high resolution low energy electron diffraction (LEED) experiment. These fluctuations are the reciprocal space analog of current fluctuations in field emission microscopy and therefore can be used to extract surface kinetic information. We show that even when the electron beam illuminates an area larger than its correlation length, time correlated data can be extracted from LEED. To demonstrate this, we present time dependent data from a W(430) surface, which reflects thermal step fluctuations. Our results illustrate the potential of LEED as a real time, ultrafast probe. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society }

• Research Organization: Ames National Laboratory
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-82
• OSTI ID: 662296
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 81, Issue 15; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1998
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
66 PHYSICS
ELECTRON DIFFRACTION
STRUCTURAL CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
FLUCTUATIONS
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TUNGSTEN
CORRELATION FUNCTIONS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
DIFFUSION
CRYSTALS
SURFACES