Surfaces RHEED

RHEED Reflection high-energy electron diffraction [78, 106] Similar to HEED Surface structure, composition... 

This chapter contains articles on six techniques that provide structural information on surfaces, interfeces, and thin films. They use X rays (X-ray diffraction, XRD, and Extended X-ray Absorption Fine-Structure, EXAFS), electrons (Low-Energy Electron Diffraction, LEED, and Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction, RHEED), or X rays in and electrons out (Surfece Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure, SEXAFS, and X-ray Photoelectron Diffraction, XPD). In their usual form, XRD and EXAFS are bulk methods, since X rays probe many microns deep, whereas the other techniques are surfece sensitive. There are, however, ways to make XRD and EXAFS much more surfece sensitive. For EXAFS this converts the technique into SEXAFS, which can have submonolayer sensitivity. 

Alternatives to XRD include transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and diffraction, Low-Energy and Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED and RHEED), extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS), and neutron diffraction. LEED and RHEED are limited to surfaces and do not probe the bulk of thin films. The elemental sensitivity in neutron diffraction is quite different from XRD, but neutron sources are much weaker than X-ray sources. Neutrons are, however, sensitive to magnetic moments. If adequately large specimens are available, neutron diffraction is a good alternative for low-Z materials and for materials where the magnetic structure is of interest. 

The analogy of a crystal surface as a diffraction grating also suggests how surface defects can be probed. Recall that for a diffraction grating the width of a diffracted peak will decrease as the number of lines in the grating is increased. This observation can be used in interpreting the shape of RHEED spots. Defects on a crystal surfr.ee can limit the number of atomic rows that scatter coherendy, thereby broadening RHEED features. 

The dimensionality of the diffraction problem will have a strong effect on how the diffraction pattern appears. For example in a ID problem, e.g., diffraction from a single Une of atoms spaced apart, only the component ofS in the direction along the line is constrained. For a 2D problem, e.g., the one encountered in RHEED, two components of S in the plane of the surface are constrained. For a 3D problem, e.g., X-ray scattering from a bulk crystal, three components of S are constrained. 

Because defects limit the order on a surface, they will alter the dif action pattern, primarily by broadening diffracted beams. Methods have been developed, mostly in the LEED literature, to analyze the shape of diffracted beams to gain information on step distributions on surfaces. These methods apply equally well to RHEED. 

What gives rise to streaks in a RHEED pattern from a real surface For integral-order beams, die explanation is atomic steps. Atomic steps will be present on nearly all crystalline surfaces. At the very least a step density sufficient to account for any misorientation of the sample from perfeedy flat must be included. Diffraction is sensitive to atomic steps. They will show up in the RHEED pattern as streaking or as splitdng of the diffracted beam at certain diffraction conditions that depend on the path difference of a wave scattered from atomic planes displaced by an atomic step height. If the path difference is an odd muldple of A./2, the waves scattered... 

RHEED is a powerful tool for studying the surface structure of crystalline samples in vacuum. Information on the surface symmetry, atomic-row spacing, and evidence of surfece roughness are contained in the RHEED pattern. The appearance of the RHEED pattern can be understood qualitatively using simple kinematic scattering theory. When used in concert with MBE, a great deal of information on film growth can be obtained. 

RHEED intensities cannot be explained using the kinematic theory. Dynamical scattering models of RHEED intensities are being developed. With them one will be able to obtain positions of the surface atoms within the surface unit cell. At this writing, such modeling has been done primarily for LEED. 

In the process of MBE, the surface structure can be investigated by reflected high energy electron diffraction (RHEED). During MBE growth, one often observes an oscillation in the intensity of the specular reflected beam as a function of time. This is interpreted to be due to the layer-by-layer growth of a two-dimensional island. 

Surface morphology Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) Atomic force microscopy (AFM)... 

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