Surface pole figures by reflection high-energy electron diffraction

The authors demonstrated that it is possible to construct a reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) pole figure of a polycrystalline film by recording multiple RHEED patterns as they rotate the substrate around the surface normal. Since electrons have limited penetration depth, the pole figure constructed is a surface pole figure. It is in contrast with the conventional x-ray pole figure which gives an average texture information of the entire film. Surface texture change, particularly the evolution of multiple preferred orientations, in polycrystalline Ru films grown by oblique angle vapor deposition has been observed using this RHEED surface pole figure technique.