Observation of Surface Optical Phonons in NaF(001) by Inelastic He-Atom Scattering

Previous time-of-flight experiments at 20-meV He beam energies, which provided the dispersion curve of Rayleigh surface phonons, have been extended to 90-meV energies on NaF(001) along $〈100〉$. Despite a large multiphonon background from the Rayleigh phonons it has been possible to detect small peaks due to optical surface phonons. The results provide the first direct experimental evidence in the dispersion curves of microscopic surface optical modes.