Surface interface diffraction

Some of the techniques included apply more broadly than just to surfaces, interfaces, or thin films for example X-Ray Diffraction and Infrared Spectroscopy, which have been used for half a century in bulk solid and liquid analysis, respectively. They are included here because they have by now been developed to also apply to surfaces. A few techniques that are applied almost entirely to bulk materials (e.g.. Neutron Diffraction) are included because they give complementary information to other methods or because they are referred to significantly in the 10 materials volumes in the Series. Some techniques were left out because they were considered to be too restricted to specific applications or materials. 

Basic information needed to understand the physical and chemical properties of solid surfaces and thin solid films include the atomic structures and the compositional variations across the surface and interface layers. The atomic structures can be studied with microscopies and with surface sensitive diffraction and particle scattering techniques. Compositions of surfaces and thin films can be studied with the atom-probe FIM. In general, however, compositional analyses are mostly done with surface sensitive macroscopic techniques, such as auger electron... 

Fadley CS, Chen Y, Couch RE, Daimon H, Denecke R, Galloway H, Hussain Z, Kaduwela AP, Kim YJ, Len PM, Liesegang J, Menchero J, Morais J, Palomaies J, Ruebush SD, Ryce S, Salmeron MB, Schattke W, Thevuthasan S, Tober ED, Van Hove MA, Wang Z, Ynzunza RX, Zaninovich JJ (1997) Surface, interface, and nanostructure characterization with photoelectron diffraction and photoelectron and X-ray holography. J Surf Anal 3 334-364... 

Brundle CR, Evans Jr CA, Wilson S, editors. X-ray diffraction. In Encyclopaedia of materials characterization, surfaces, interfaces, thin films. Oxford, UK Butterworth-Heinemann 1992. 

Chemical reactions at the gas-surface interface can be followed by monitoring gas-phase products with, for example, a mass spectrometer, or by directly analyzing the surface with a spectroscopic technique such as Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), photoelectron spectroscopy (PES), or electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), all of which involve energy analysis of electrons, or by secondary ionization mass spectrometry (SIMS), which examines the masses of ions ejected by ion bombardment. Another widely used surface probe is low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), which can provide structural information via electron diffraction patterns. At the gas-liquid interface, optical reflection elHpsometry and optical spectroscopies are employed, such as Eourier transform infrared (ET IK) and laser Raman spectroscopies. 

The actual structure at a vapor-liquid interface can be probed with x-rays. Rice and co-workers [72,73,117] use x-ray reflection to determine the composition perpendicular to the surface and grazing incidence x-ray diffraction to study the transverse structure of an interface. In a study of bismuth gallium mixtures. 

The interface between a solid and its vapor (or an inert gas) is discussed in this chapter from an essentially phenomenological point of view. We are interested in surface energies and free energies and in how they may be measured or estimated theoretically. The study of solid surfaces at the molecular level, through the methods of spectroscopy and diffraction, is taken up in Chapter VIII. 

There are several approaches to gain the required surface sensitivity with diffraction methods. We review several of these here, emphasizing the case of solid/vacuum interfaces some of these also apply to other interfaces. 

The monolayer resulting when amphiphilic molecules are introduced to the water—air interface was traditionally called a two-dimensional gas owing to what were the expected large distances between the molecules. However, it has become quite clear that amphiphiles self-organize at the air—water interface even at relatively low surface pressures (7—10). For example, x-ray diffraction data from a monolayer of heneicosanoic acid spread on a 0.5-mM CaCl2 solution at zero pressure (11) showed that once the barrier starts moving and compresses the molecules, the surface pressure, 7T, increases and the area per molecule, M, decreases. The surface pressure, ie, the force per unit length of the barrier (in N/m) is the difference between CJq, the surface tension of pure water, and O, that of the water covered with a monolayer. Where the total number of molecules and the total area that the monolayer occupies is known, the area per molecules can be calculated and a 7T-M isotherm constmcted. This isotherm (Fig. 2), which describes surface pressure as a function of the area per molecule (3,4), is rich in information on stabiUty of the monolayer at the water—air interface, the reorientation of molecules in the two-dimensional system, phase transitions, and conformational transformations. 

XRD offers unparalleled accuracy in the measurement of atomic spacings and is the technique of choice for determining strain states in thin films. XRD is noncontact and nondestructive, which makes it ideal for in situ studies. The intensities measured with XRD can provide quantitative, accurate information on the atomic arrangements at interfaces (e.g., in multilayers). Materials composed of any element can be successfully studied with XRD, but XRD is most sensitive to high-Z elements, since the diffracted intensity from these is much lar r than from low-Z elements. As a consequence, the sensitivity of XRD depends on the material of interest. With lab-based equipment, surface sensitivities down to a thickness of -50 A are achievable, but synchrotron radiation (because of its higher intensity)... 

EXAFS is a nondestructive, element-specific spectroscopic technique with application to all elements from lithium to uranium. It is employed as a direct probe of the atomic environment of an X-ray absorbing element and provides chemical bonding information. Although EXAFS is primarily used to determine the local structure of bulk solids (e.g., crystalline and amorphous materials), solid surfaces, and interfaces, its use is not limited to the solid state. As a structural tool, EXAFS complements the familiar X-ray diffraction technique, which is applicable only to crystalline solids. EXAFS provides an atomic-scale perspective about the X-ray absorbing element in terms of the numbers, types, and interatomic distances of neighboring atoms. 

Solid state NMR is a relatively recent spectroscopic technique that can be used to uniquely identify and quantitate crystalline phases in bulk materials and at surfaces and interfaces. While NMR resembles X-ray diffraction in this capacity, it has the additional advantage of being element-selective and inherently quantitative. Since the signal observed is a direct reflection of the local environment of the element under smdy, NMR can also provide structural insights on a molecularlevel. Thus, information about coordination numbers, local symmetry, and internuclear bond distances is readily available. This feature is particularly usefrd in the structural analysis of highly disordered, amorphous, and compositionally complex systems, where diffraction techniques and other spectroscopies (IR, Raman, EXAFS) often fail. 

Much of the difficulty in demonstrating the mechanism of breakaway in a particular case arises from the thinness of the reaction zone and its location at the metal-oxide interface. Workers must consider (a) whether the oxide is cracked or merely recrystallised (b) whether the oxide now results from direct molecular reaction, or whether a barrier layer remains (c) whether the inception of a side reaction (e.g. 2CO - COj + C)" caused failure or (d) whether a new transport process, chemical transport or volatilisation, has become possible. In developing these mechanisms both arguments and experimental technique require considerable sophistication. As a few examples one may cite the use of density and specific surface-area measurements as routine of porosimetry by a variety of methods of optical microscopy, electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction at reaction temperature of tracer, electric field and stress measurements. Excellent metallographic sectioning is taken for granted in this field of research. 

It is appropriate to emphasize again that mechanisms formulated on the basis of kinetic observations should, whenever possible, be supported by independent evidence, including, for example, (where appropriate) X-ray diffraction data (to recognize phases present and any topotactic relationships [1257]), reactivity studies of any possible (or postulated) intermediates, conductivity measurements (to determine the nature and mobilities of surface species and defects which may participate in reaction), influence on reaction rate of gaseous additives including products which may be adsorbed on active surfaces, microscopic examination (directions of interface advance, particle cracking, etc.), surface area determinations and any other relevant measurements. 

In recent years, high-resolution x-ray diffraction has become a powerful method for studying layered strnctnres, films, interfaces, and surfaces. X-ray reflectivity involves the measurement of the angnlar dependence of the intensity of the x-ray beam reflected by planar interfaces. If there are multiple interfaces, interference between the reflected x-rays at the interfaces prodnces a series of minima and maxima, which allow determination of the thickness of the film. More detailed information about the film can be obtained by fitting the reflectivity curve to a model of the electron density profile. Usually, x-ray reflectivity scans are performed with a synchrotron light source. As with ellipsometry, x-ray reflectivity provides good vertical resolution [14,20] but poor lateral resolution, which is limited by the size of the probing beam, usually several tens of micrometers. 

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