Real space mapping of the surface atomic environment via low energy scattering spectroscopy

Low-energy ion scattering spectroscopy is used to obtain real space surface imaging of the atomic surroundings of different fcc metal surfaces. Scattered He⁺ ions were mapped over a large solid angle sector. By using an universal shadow cone expression, it is possible to invert the angular maps into two-dimensional real space maps. The inversion procedure is tested on Pt(111), Cu(001) and Al(111) surfaces getting nearest neighbour atoms up to a distance of 4 Å. Furthermore, for known surfaces the maps also allow to extract information on the scattering mechanism itself.