Positrons in Surface Physics

Abstract

Within the last decade powerful methods have been developed to study surfaces using bright low-energy positron beams. These novel analysis tools exploit the unique properties of positron interaction with surfaces, which comprise the absence of exchange interaction, repulsive crystal potential and positron trapping in delocalized surface states at low energies. By applying reflection high-energy positron diffraction (RHEPD) one can benefit from the phenomenon of total reflection below a critical angle that is not present in electron surface diffraction. Therefore, RHEPD allows the determination of the atom positions of (reconstructed) surfaces with outstanding accuracy. The main advantages of positron annihilation induced Auger-electron spectroscopy (PAES) are the missing secondary electron background in the energy region of Auger-transitions and its topmost layer sensitivity for elemental analysis. In order to enable the investigation of the electron polarization at surfaces low-energy spin-polarized positrons are used to probe the outermost electrons of the surface. Furthermore, in fundamental research the preparation of well defined surfaces tailored for the production of bound leptonic systems plays an outstanding role. In this report, it is envisaged to cover both, the fundamental aspects of positron surface interaction and the present status of surface studies using modern positron beam techniques.

Review artivle: 102 pages, 51 figures

References in corpus (10)

• Efficient propagation of the polarization from laser photons to positrons through Compton scattering and electron-positron pair creation
• Direct Observation of the Hyperfine Transition of the Ground State Positronium
• Identification of vacancy defects in a thin film perovskite oxide
• Auger mediated quantum sticking of positrons to surfaces: Evidence for single step transition from a scattering state to a surface image potential bound state
• Positronium-ion decay
• Investigation of the chemical vicinity of crystal defects in ion-irradiated Mg and AZ31 with coincident Doppler broadening spectroscopy
• Spin-resolved Fermi surface of the localized ferromagnetic Heusler compound Cu${}_2$MnAl measured with spin-polarized positron annihilation
• High-Intensity and High-Brightness Source of Moderated Positrons Using a Brilliant gamma Beam
• Detection and imaging of the oxygen deficiency in single crystalline YBa${}_{\text{2}}$Cu${}_{\text{3}}$O${}_{\text{7}-\delta }$ thin films using a positron beam
• Electron-electron interaction strength in ferromagnetic nickel determined by spin-polarized positron annihilation

Cited by in corpus (21)

• Advances in QED with intense background fields
• Thermal Energy Transport in Oxide Nuclear Fuel
• Positronium Physics and Biomedical Applications
• Many-body theory of positron binding in polyatomic molecules
• Dense Polarized Positrons from Laser-Irradiated Foil Targets in the QED Regime
• Defect Imaging and Detection of Precipitates Using a New Scanning Positron Microbeam
• Many-Body Theory Calculations of Positron Scattering and Annihilation in H${}_2$, N${}_2$ and CH${}_4$
• Probing positron cooling in noble gases via annihilation $\gamma$ spectra
• A multi-stop time-of-flight spectrometer for the measurement of positron annihilation-induced electrons in coincidence with the Doppler-shifted annihilation gamma photon
• Time-Dependent Multi-Component Density Functional Theory for Coupled Electron-Positron Dynamics
• Generation of polarized positron beams via collisions of ultrarelativistic electron beams
• Data-analysis software framework 2DMAT and its application to experimental measurements for two-dimensional material structures
• Data-driven sensitivity analysis in a total-reflection high-energy positron diffraction (TRHEPD) experiment of the Si${}_4$O${}_5$N${}_3$ / 6H-SiC (0001)-($\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3}$) R30${}^{\circ }$
• sim-trhepd-rheed -- Open-source simulator of total-reflection high-energy positron diffraction (TRHEPD) and reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED)
• Determination of the Spacing Between Hydrogen-Intercalated Quasi-Free-Standing Monolayer Graphene and 6H-SiC(0001) Using Total-Reflection High-Energy Positron Diffraction
• Detection of light emission produced in the process of positronium formation
• Two-photon Annihilation of Positrons with K-shell Electrons of H-like ions
• Oxygen-deficiency-driven phase segregation enables enhanced hole transport in amorphous tellurium oxides
• Total-Reflection High-Energy Positron Diffractometer at NEPOMUC -- Instrumentation, Simulation and First Measurements
• Many-body theory predictions of positron binding energies in five-membered heterocycles involving N, O, S and NH substituents
• Coupled cluster theory for positron binding in anions and polyatomic molecules