Ion Scattering Studies of Reconstruction and Growth

The general goals of this research are to determine the geometric structure of surfaces, in particular reconstructed surfaces. This work provides a deeper and wider understanding of the factors that affect atomic positions at interfaces and to use this knowledge to artificially produce surfaces with interesting and potentially useful properties. Some of the issues that will be addressed include: 1) the influence of external perturbations, like steps and adatoms of different electronegativity, on reconstruction phenomena; 2) what are the microscopic factors that cause influence bilayer growth?; what new insights can be obtained about the vibrational properties at a surface? The principal experimental technique to be employed is medium energy ion scattering.