APPLICATIONS OF HIGH-RESOLUTION ELECTRON-ENERGY-LOSS SPECTROSCOPY TO TECHNICAL SURFACES

Within the past several years, advances in high-resolution electron en ergy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) have permitted the application to incr easingly complex systems, ''technical surfaces'', which depart from we ll-characterized, smooth, single-crystal surfaces. These developments have tracked a series of improvements in instrumentation, with present generation spectrometers exhibiting limiting energy resolution below 1 meV at relatively high detector currents (10 pA, direct beam). This paper addresses recent progress in two of these areas: polymer surface s and model-supported catalysts.