New experimental technique for determining real-space atomic images applied to aluminum adsorbed on silicon (111)

Surface atomic arrangement visualization via reference-atom-specific holography

We demonstrate the direct reconstruction of 3D atomic images from measured low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) intensity spectra. A multiple-incident angle and multiple-energy integral are first applied to the spectra to obtain a map of interatomic vectors. From this map, a nonbulk interatomic vector is chosen that points to a desired reference atom. A second integral transformation, using the chosen interatomic vector as a filter, is applied to the LEED spectra to produce images of individual atoms in the vicinity of the selected reference atom. This two-step method overcomes the problem of multiple, nonequivalent reference atoms and is applicable to elemental or compound materials.

Atomically resolved images from near node photoelectron holography experiments on Al(111)

Szöke's concept for electron holography is hampered by forward scattering that dominates electron diffraction from electron point sources below the surface top layer. Forward scattering was proposed to be suppressed if the anisotropic nature of the electron source wave is exploited [T. Greber and J. Osterwalder, Chem. Phys. Lett. 256, 653 (1996)]. Experiments show a strong suppression of forward scattering in Al(111) if Al 2s photoelectrons (E(kin) = 952 eV) are measured near the nodal plane of the outgoing p wave. The holographic reconstruction from such diffraction data provides three dimensional images of atomic sites in unit cells with a size of more than 10 A.

Photoelectron diffraction imaging for C2H2 and C2H4 chemisorbed on Si(100) reveals a new bonding configuration

A new adsorption site for adsorbed acetylene on Si(100) is observed by photoelectron imaging based on the holographic principle. The diffraction effects in the carbon 1s angle-resolved photoemission are inverted (including the small-cone method) to obtain an image of the atom's neighboring carbon. The chemisorbed acetylene molecule is bonded to four silicon surface atoms. In contrast to the C2H2 case, the image for adsorbed C2H4 shows it bonded to two Si surface atoms.