Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction

Abstract

The fundamentals, experimental techniques, and practical aspects of reflection high‐energy electron diffraction (RHEED) are described with some examples of observations. Actual samples that we deal with in experiments are in many cases far from ideal ones; the surfaces are not perfectly single‐crystalline with infinitely large domains, or not atomically flat. The RHEED patterns are then modified from the theoretical ones for ideal samples. Inversely, from such modifications in the patterns, we can obtain various kinds of information on the atomic structures of surfaces and thin films. Examples of RHEED analyses presented here include monitoring structural phase transitions and epitaxial growth of atomic layers. RHEED has advantages in observing such dynamical phenomena of structure changes.