Analysis of the outermost atomic layer of a surface by low-energy ion scattering

Noble gas ion scattering is used to study the surface of solid targets. It is shown that this technique can be used to obtain a mass spectrum of the first atomic layer of the surface. Since the outermost atoms will largely determine the chemical reactivity and physical properties of the surface, this is an important property for an analytic tool to have. In addition to reflected ions, high-energy recoil ions are sometimes observed.Both the reflected and the recoil ions provide information about the atomic structure of the surface. The various possibilities of ion scattering are demonstrated for bromine, oxygen, sodium and potassium adsorbed on a Si(111) surface, for halogens adsorbed on Ni(100) and for GaP (110), (111) ($\text{111}$) surfaces. The influence of thermal vibrations of surface atoms and of electronic excitation on the spectra is discussed.