Ion–solid interaction at low energies: Principles and application of quantitative ISS

Quantitative surface analysis with low‐energy (500–5000 eV) ion scattering is known to be difficult, most often because of strong charge transfer and multiple scattering effects occurring during ion–surface interaction. In order to avoid neutralization problems, either alkali primary ions or noble gas ions in combination with the detection of all scattered particles was applied. Multiple scattering occurs predominantly at forward scattering and might confound the analysis. Backward scattering (i.e. 180° impact collision ion scattering) bypasses strongly the multiple scattering complication and has been used successfully for the analysis of a number of surface structures for metals, semiconductors and binary alloys. Quantitative surface structures were determined by comparison with computer simulations.