This book presents an Ultrafast Low-Energy Electron Diffraction (ULEED) system that reveals ultrafast structural changes on the atomic scale. The achievable temporal resolution in the low-energy regime is improved by several orders of magnitude and has enabled the melting of a highly-sensitive, molecularly thin layer of a polymer crystal to be resolved for the first time. This new experimental approach permits time-resolved structural investigations of systems that were previously partially or totally inaccessible, including surfaces, interfaces and atomically thin films. It will be of fundamental importance for understanding the properties of nanomaterials so as to tailor their properties.

Surface crystallography plays the same fundamental role in surface science which bulk crystallography has played so successfully in solid-state physics and chemistry. The atomic-scale structure is one of the most important aspects in the understanding of the behavior of surfaces in such widely diverse fields as heterogeneous catalysis, microelectronics, adhesion, lubrication, cor rosion, coatings, and solid-solid and solid-liquid interfaces. Low-Energy Electron Diffraction or LEED has become the prime tech nique used to determine atomic locations at surfaces. On one hand, LEED has yielded the most numerous and complete structural results to date (almost 200 structures), while on the other, LEED has been regarded as the "technique to beat" by a variety of other surface crystallographic methods, such as photoemission, SEXAFS, ion scattering and atomic diffraction. Although these other approaches have had impressive successes, LEED has remained the most productive technique and has shown the most versatility of application: from adsorbed rare gases, to reconstructed surfaces of sem iconductors and metals, to molecules adsorbed on metals. However, these statements should not be viewed as excessively dogmatic since all surface sensitive techniques retain untapped potentials that will undoubtedly be explored and exploited. Moreover, surface science remains a multi-technique endeavor. In particular, LEED never has been and never will be self sufficient. LEED has evolved considerably and, in fact, has reached a watershed.

Advances in Imaging & Electron Physics merges two long-running serials—Advances in Electronics & Electron Physics and Advances in Optical & Electron Microscopy. The series features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science, and digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy, and the computing methods used in all these domains. - Contains contributions from leading authorities on the subject matter - Informs and updates on all the latest developments in the field of imaging and electron physics - Provides practitioners interested in microscopy, optics, image processing, mathematical morphology, electromagnetic fields, electron, and ion emission with a valuable resource - Features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science. and digital image processing

This volume contains the papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop in "Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction and Reflection Electron Imaging of Surfaces" held at the Koningshof conference center, Veldhoven, the Netherlands, June 15-19, 1987. The main topics of the workshop, Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) and Reflection Electron Microscopy (REM), have a common basis in the diffraction processes which high energy electrons undergo when they interact with solid surfaces at grazing angles. However, while REM is a new technique developed on the basis of recent advances in transmission electron microscopy, RHEED is an old method in surface crystallography going back to the discovery of electron diffraction in 1927 by Davisson and Germer. Until the development of ultra high vacuum techniques in the 1960's made instruments using slow electrons more accessable, RHEED was the dominating electron diffraction technique. Since then and until recently the method of Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) largely surpassed RHEED in popularity in surface studies. The two methods are closely related of course, each with its own specific advantages. The grazing angle geometry of RHEED has now become a very useful feature because this makes it ideally suited for combination with the thin growth technique of Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE). This combination allows in-situ studies of freshly grown and even growing surfaces, opening up new areas of research of both fundamental and technological importance.