[en] Non-destructive, in situ methods for characterization of thin film growth phenomena is key to understand thin film growth processes and to develop more reliable deposition procedures, especially for complex layered structures involving multi-phase materials. However, surface characterization methods that use either electrons (e.g. AES or XPS) or low energy ions (SIMS) require an UHV environment and utilize instrumentation which obstructs line of sight access to the substrate and are therefore incompatible with line of sight deposition methods and thin film deposition processes which introduce gas, either part of the deposition or in order to produce the desired phase. We have developed a means of differentially pumping both the ion beam source and detectors of a TOF ion beam surface analysis spectrometer that does not interfere with the deposition process and permits compositional and structural analysis of the growing film in the present system, at pressures up to several mTorr. Higher pressures are feasible with modified source-detector geometry. In order to quantify the sensitivity of Ion Scattering Spectroscopy (ISS) and Direct Recoil Spectroscopy (DRS), we have measured the signal intensity for stabilized clean metals in a variety of gas environments as a function of the ambient gas species and pressure, and ion beam species and kinetic energy. Results are interpreted in terms of collision cross sections which are compared with known gas phase scattering data and provide an apriori basis for the evaluation of time-of-flight ion scattering and recoil spectroscopies (ToF-ISARS) for various industrial processing environments which involve both inert and reactive cases. The cross section data for primary ion-gas molecule and recoiled atom-gas molecule interactions are also provided. from which the maximum operating pressure in any experimental configuration can be obtained