The correlation between the statistical properties of surface defect distribution and the specular intensity obtained from low energy He scattering technique Original Research Article

This paper shows that the He diffraction specular intensity does not depend in a simple, predictable way on single statistical parameters describing the surface defect lateral distribution. In particular it shows the lack of correlation between specular intensity and the geometrical overlap of single defect cross sections, a parameter widely used in the literature for a qualitative interpretation of He atom diffraction data. An approach to the problem of surface structure determination is attempted on the basis of a cluster expansion of the scattering matrix at reflection angle.