A joint experimental and theoretical study of energy loss is presented for 1-to-4-keV fluorine negative ions in grazing scattering on a missing-row reconstructed Au(110) surface. Measurements of energy losses for various azimuthal orientations of the crystal have been performed by means of a time-of-flight method with a pulsed beam. The dependence of the fraction of surviving negative ions on azimuthal angles, was determined. Our energy-loss data are discussed in light of trajectory and stopping-power calculations, where the explicit inclusion of the nonuniform electron density at the surface provides good agreement with the experimental data. The simulation allows us to delineate various trajectory classes that correspond to different contributions in the energy-loss spectra for various azimuthal orientations of the surface.

• Received 1 October 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.83.032901