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Magnetic Oxide Heterostructures: EuO on Cubic Oxides ... - JuSER

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3.2. In situ characterization techniques 41<br />

diffuse background, due to scattering from statistically distributed centers. Since the area<br />

on a sample surface in which constructive diffraction occurs is smaller than the coherence<br />

width of the electron beam, which amounts to ∼100 Å, a LEED probe is point-like. 79 Thus,<br />

LEED probes a microscopic area, while with RHEED one can “scan” the entire surface of the<br />

sample. In this work, LEED investigations are used to monitor the surface crystal structure<br />

by a qualitative comparison with simulated patterns of the LEEDpat software. 224 In practice,<br />

we use a three mesh VG Microtech RVL 640 Rear View LEED system.<br />

3.2.3. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES)<br />

Whenever functional heterostructures with the highest chemical quality of interfaces and<br />

surfaces are designed, an in situ analysis of the chemical composition and a quantification of<br />

surface oxidation or possible carbon contamination is essential. Among the non-destructive<br />

and element-selective chemical probing techniques, the Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) is<br />

well-established for analyzing the kinetic energy of secondary electrons. For light elements<br />

(Z 30), the Auger-Meitner cascade is the dominant emission process, when surface atoms<br />

are excited by X-rays or electrons. The external excitation leaves an electron core-hole (A),<br />

which is filled by an upper shell electron (B). This recombination energy is characteristic for<br />

the particular elemental atom and is used to emit an outer shell electron (C) carrying the<br />

characteristic kinetic energy<br />

E kin = E A − E B − E C − E vac .<br />

The specific Auger processes are named by the participating shells, e. g. KLM for transitions<br />

between the s and p orbitals and an emission from the d shell.<br />

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<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

Figure 3.6.: Cylindrical mirror analyzer for Auger electron spectroscopy. The pass energy E 0 and voltage<br />

U p between the two cylinders are related by E 0 = eU p /0.77ln(b/a), with a and b denoting the<br />

radii of the inner and the outer cylinders. 79<br />

A cylindrical mirror analyzer (CMA) is used for Auger electron spectroscopy. The Auger<br />

electrons are focused from an entrance point into a certain cone by two concentric cylindrical

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