On a peculiarity of low-energy ion scattering from a well-ordered bcc W(2 1 1) surface

Abstract A peculiarity in the backscattering of keV He + ions by a well-ordered high-purity W(2 1 1) surface is reported. Besides the normal elastic binary collision peak and the low-energy tail due to backscattering in deeper layers, an extra peak is observed for an inelastic loss of about 95 eV. This unusually large loss has a constant value over a wide range of primary energies (1.5–4.5 keV). An extra peculiarity is that the peak is only observed for the scattering in normal incidence towards the (2 1 1) plane. It is also not seen for polycrystalline W. The energy loss may be due to a quasi-double or -triple collisions of He particles with the row-trough structure of W(2 1 1) involving electronic excitation of both He and W atoms. Alternatively it may be due to a special channeling/dechanneling process for the incident ions.