Reflection anisotropy microscopy: improved set-up and applications to CO oxidation on platinum

Reflection anisotropy microscopy (RAM) is a novel technique to spatially re solve the optical anisotropy of surfaces. We describe a substantially impro ved set-up, utilizing a Foster prism. As a result the image contrast was si gnificantly enhanced and the light source now can be polychromatic. We also present applications to CO oxidation on platinum. For CO adsorption on Pt( 110), the RAM signal was correlated to the surface structure. For CO oxidat ion on Pt(110) under the conditions of pattern formation, the surface recon struction was spatially resolved. For a polycrystalline platinum foil indiv idual crystal grains were imaged and their crystallographic structure was i dentified. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.