An experimental investigation of the reflection of low energy electrons from surfaces of 2H-MoS2

Experiments are described in which a new technique - total current spectroscopy (TCS) - has been used to investigate the energy dependence of the reflection of low energy electrons from clean surfaces of the naturally occuring mineral molybdenite (2H-MoS2). A theory involving both elastic and inelastic scattering of electrons is applied to a band structure calculated for molybdenite by Mattheiss. With relatively few approximations the results of numerical calculations for a TCS spectrum from molybdenite agree surprisingly well with experiment. It is suggested that TCS will prove to be a convenient and sensitive tool for the probing of energy structures in other solid surfaces. For the transition metal dichalcogenide series it should be possible to observe systematic changes in TCS spectra associated with changes in band structure, and subsequently to predict details in the density of states distributions using iterative computer procedures. (Auth.)