The influence of surface microtopography in metallic electroreflectance

Electroreflectance in an electrochemical cell has been measured on a variety of copper single crystal faces at normal incidence of the light. Striking crystallographic and polarisation anisotropies are observed which cannot be explained within a free electron model. Surfaces with the most open structural arrangement, which give rise to substantial smoothing of the electron density distribution, are shown to exhibit the largest electroreflectance effect.