Low-energy ion scattering

Low-energy ion scattering spectroscopy (LEIS), sometimes referred to simply as ion scattering spectroscopy (ISS), is a surface-sensitive analytical technique used to characterize the chemical and structural makeup of materials. LEIS involves directing a stream of charged particles known as ions at a surface and making observations of the positions, velocities, and energies of the ions that have interacted with the surface. Data that is thus collected can be used to deduce information about the material such as the relative positions of atoms in a surface lattice and the elemental identity of those atoms. LEIS is closely related to both medium-energy ion scattering (MEIS) and high-energy ion scattering (HEIS, known in practice as Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, or RBS), differing primarily in the energy range of the ion beam used to probe the surface. While much of the information collected using LEIS can be obtained using other surface science techniques, LEIS is unique in its sensitivity to both structure and composition of surfaces. Additionally, LEIS is one of a very few surface-sensitive techniques capable of directly observing hydrogen atoms, an aspect that may make it an increasingly more important technique as the hydrogen economy is being explored.

LEIS systems consist of the following:

Several different types of events may take place as a result of the ion beam impinging on a target surface. Some of these events include electron or photon emission, electron transfer (both ion-surface and surface-ion), scattering, adsorption, and sputtering (i.e. ejection of atoms from the surface). For each system and each interaction there exists an interaction cross-section, and the study of these cross-sections is a field in its own right. As the name suggests, LEIS is primarily concerned with scattering phenomena.

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