Growth morphology determination in the initial stages of epitaxy by XPS

It is found that for Cu(100) and Ni(100) x‐ray photoelectrons and Auger electrons with energies of ∼1000 eV exhibit intensity variations versus polar angle which are dominated by forward scattering off neighboring atoms. In monitoring the epitaxial growth of Cu on Ni(100) this phenomenon is shown to yield clear and easily available structural information about the arrangement of atoms in the Cu adlayers.