Surface Crystallography with Low-Energy Electron Diffraction

Bragg's 1913 publication of the principles of X-ray crystallography came only a year after von Laue's discovery of X-ray diffraction from crystals. Structure determination (of small molecules) with high-energy electron diffraction followed by just three years the 1927 discovery of electron diffraction by Davisson and Germer. By contrast, low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) would require four more decades before yielding its first structure determinations (of surfaces) around 1970. The delay was primarily due to the need for ultra-high vacuum and to a lesser extent to the need for a suitable theory to model multiple scattering. This review will sketch the development of surface crystallography by LEED and describe its principles and present capabilities.