Surface action spectroscopy with rare gas messenger atoms.

Action spectroscopy with inert gas messengers is commonly used for the characterization of aggregates in the gas phase. The messengers, often rare gas atoms or D2 molecules, are attached to the gas phase aggregates at low temperature. Vibrational spectra of the aggregates are measured via detection of inert gas desorption following a vibrational excitation by variable-energy infrared light. We have constructed an apparatus for the application of action spectroscopy to surfaces of solids with the aim of establishing a new method for the vibrational spectroscopy of surfaces and deposited clusters. Experiments performed for neon covered V2O3(0001) show that this method can provide information about surface vibrations. Besides the surface sensitive channel, there is also a bulk sensitive one as demonstrated with the example of CeO2(111) thin film data. Unlike infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy, normalization to a reference spectrum is not required for action spectroscopy data, and unlike high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy, the action spectroscopy method does not suffer from moderate resolution nor from multiple excitations. Selective decoration of specific surface features with messenger atoms may be utilized to focus the spectroscopic information onto these features.