Probing the Atomic Structure and Chemistry of Interfaces

While the structure of many surfaces (i.e., solid/vacuum interfaces) is now well established, the structure of solid/solid interfaces is still under investigation, and in many cases still controversial. And yet the electronic and physical properties of modern solids often depend crucially on the nature of the many interfaces they contain. In the case of epitaxial interfaces between commensurate crystals, the determination of the interfacial structure requires chemical information. Rather than deciding where the atoms sit, it is necessary to establish which atom sits where.