5. Applications of high-resolution electron energy loss spectrometry

The most important application of high-resolution electron energy loss spectrometry (HREELS) has been the study of adsorbed molecules. Their vibrational signature makes it possible to determine the nature of adsorbed species, the site and geometry of chemisorption, to monitor surface reactions and, in some cases, to measure binding energies.

In the dipolar regime, HREELS spectrometry can be compared fairly closely to infrared radiation spectrometry, with the important difference that HREELS spectrometry is intrinsically a surface analysis technique, whereas infrared spectrometry is, in itself, volume-sensitive, due to its great depth of penetration. On the other hand, HREELS spectrometry is not restricted to the observation of active infrared modes, as it also has access to other vibrational modes detected by Raman spectrometry or inelastic neutron scattering....