Calcium fluoride and gold reference by high sensitivity-low energy ion scattering

Information about the outermost atomic layer of a material is critically important for many processes and materials, including in catalysis, tribology, wetting, corrosion, and thin film growth. Low energy ion scattering (LEIS) is an extremely surface sensitive technique that can quantitatively analyze the outermost atomic layer of a material. Recent developments in LEIS have resulted in a particularly high sensitivity version of the technique known as high sensitivity LEIS (HS-LEIS). In LEIS and HS-LEIS, reference and/or standard materials allow straightforward quantitation of the spectra. In this submission, the authors show the HS-LEIS spectrum of a high purity calcium fluoride powder. CaF₂ is a useful reference material for calcium in LEIS because it is relatively inexpensive, not hygroscopic, and available in high purity. Due to the applications/uses of calcium in different areas of science, including in catalysis, polymer light emitting diodes, organic photovoltaics, solid oxide fuel cells, and solar cells, these data may enable future work in these areas. A reference spectrum for gold is included with this submission.