Structure determination of Ag(111) by low-energy electron diffraction

Abstract

A quantitative structure determination of the Ag(111) clean surface has been performed using low-energy electron diffraction. Optimisation of the outermost layer spacings and vibrational amplitudes was achieved using two different dynamical scattering computational methods, one using the LEEDFIT code and the second exploiting a Simulated Annealing algorithm implemented on the conventional Van Hove/Tong code. The results obtained show that a bulk-terminated structural model describes the data best (Δd12=0.00±0.02 Å and Δd23=0.00±0.03 Å), and in particular, the analysis excludes a 2.5% contraction of the outermost layer spacing, which was recently reported on the basis of ion-scattering measurements. The LEED result of no contraction is consistent with prior results for the (111) face of several other fcc metals.