Bloch wave degeneracies in systematic high energy electron diffraction

Abstract

For the systematic diffraction of high energy electrons by a thin crystalline slab, we study the accidental degeneracies of the Bloch waves excited in the specimen by the incident beam. It is shown that these Bloch waves are the eigenstates of a one dimensional band structure problem, and this is solved by wave matching methods. For a symmetric potential, the symmetry properties of the Bloch waves are discussed, and it is shown how accidental degeneracies of these waves can occur when the reflexion coefficient for waves incident on one unit cell of the one dimensional periodic potential vanishes. The form of the band structure and the Bloch waves in the neighbourhood of a degeneracy are derived by expanding the Kramers function in a Taylor series. It is then shown analytically how the degeneracy affects the diffracted waves emerging from the crystalline specimen (in particular, the Kikuchi pattern). To understand these effects fully, W. K. B. approximations for the Bloch waves are used to derive the Bloch wave excitations and the absorption coefficients. However, to predict the degeneracies themselves, it is shown that a different formula for the reflexion coefficient, due to Landauer, must be used. This formula shows how the critical voltage at which the Bloch waves degenerate depends on the form of the potential, and allows quick, accurate, computations of the critical voltages to be made. Also, a new higher order degeneracy is predicted for some of the systematic potentials of cadmium, lead and gold. Finally, to infer the potential in real space from measurements of critical voltages and several other quantities, we suggest an inversion scheme based on the Landauer formula for the reflexion coefficient. To a close approximation this potential is proportional to V 2 of the crystal charge density.