A setup for grazing incidence fast atom diffraction

TL;DR

This paper presents a new ultra-high vacuum setup for grazing incidence fast atom diffraction, similar to RHEED, with custom instruments and calibration methods to improve experimental efficiency and accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a specialized UHV setup for GIFAD experiments, including instrumental innovations and calibration techniques, enhancing the feasibility of surface diffraction studies.

Findings

Design of a simple geometry similar to RHEED

Development of custom instruments for GIFAD

Analysis of calibration challenges and solutions

Abstract

We describe a UHV setup for grazing incidence fast atom diffraction (GIFAD) experiments. The overall geometry is simply a source of keV atoms facing an imaging detector. Therefore, It is very similar to the geometry of RHEED experiments, reflection high energy electron diffraction used to monitor growth at surfaces. Several custom instrumental developments are described making GIFAD operation efficient and straightforward. The difficulties associated with accurately measuring the small scattering angle and the related calibration are carefully analyzed.