SURFACE CRYSTALLOGRAPHY BY FORWARD-FOCUSING OF QUASI-ELASTICALLY REFLECTED ELECTRONS - PHYSICAL BASIS AND APPLICATIONS

A review is given of original works aimed at development of a new stru ctural technique based on analysis of forward-focusing peaks in full-h emispheric spatial distributions of quasi-elastically reflected electr ons (the so-called Kikuchi patterns). Regularities of electron focusin g and the pattern formation are derived from the experiments on both p rimary incoming and outgoing electron scattering by Nb(100), W(100), M o(110) and Si(lll) single crystals. The effective models for the patte rn simulation are presented. The results obtained for the crystals wit h ultrathin adlayers (Ag/Mo(110), Ag/Si(111), C-60/Mo(110)) are descri bed. They demonstrate fairly high surface sensitivity of the method, w hich allows to study the objects without long-range order in real spac e.