Improved extraction of I–V curves from low-energy electron diffraction images

An improved analysis procedure for the extraction of intensities of diffraction spots from low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) images is described. The improvements in the removal of background intensity, in the determination of the region of interest for each spot and the tracking of the spot positions increase precision and accuracy of the resulting LEED I–V curves. Their larger dynamic range and smaller noise level at low intensities finally increase the precision in the determination of surface structures by the analysis of LEED I–V curves.