Surface X-ray Speckles: Coherent Surface Diffraction from Au (0 0 1)

Abstract

We present coherent speckled x-ray diffraction patterns obtained from a monolayer of surface atoms. We measured both the specular anti-Bragg reflection and the off-specular hexagonal reconstruction peak for the Au (0 0 1) surface reconstruction. We observed fluctuations of the speckle patterns even when the integrated intensity appears static. By auto-correlating the speckle patterns, we were able to identify two qualitatively different surface dynamic behaviors of the hex reconstruction depending on the sample temperature.

15 pages, 4 figures. Accepted to Phys. Rev. Lett. 9/2009