Elastic Electron Backscattering from Surfaces at Low Energies

A novel experimental method, involving reverse-view LEED optics, is proposed for simultaneous determination of the angular distribution of elastically backscattered electrons and the energy dependence of elastically backscattered intensity. Extensive measurements in the energy range 50–500 eV were performed for Al, Cu, Pt and Au. The experimental energy and angular dependences of the backscattered intensity were found to compare very well with results of Monte Carlo simulations performed in the energy range considered. This indicates that the procedure of determining the inelastic mean free path from the elastically backscattered intensities can also be used in the low electron energy region. The performance of theory is somewhat worse in the case of aluminium, and thus the use of this metal as standard is not recommended.