Improved efficiency of the sputtering technique for pyrite surface and its effect on reduction of electron beam damage

Abstract

Abstract A quick and highly efficient method is described for the preparation of clean and well‐characterised (100) pyrite surfaces on natural crystals based on a sputter/annealing procedure in an ultra‐high vacuum (UHV) chamber. The improvement has been achieved by controlling the ingress of the key contaminants water and oxygen and restricting the annealing temperature to 560 K, which is below the SO 2 dissociation temperature. Low‐energy electron diffraction (LEED) and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data were used to study the surface. As well as improving the efficiency of the sputtering technique for this surface, a further major benefit is its high stability against electron beam damage as investigated by a quantitative LEED study. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.