Calculation of x-ray-diffraction profiles from vicinal surfaces

We present a calculation of x-ray diffraction from a crystal with a surface oriented at an arbitrary angle relative to the axes of the bulk crystalline lattice, demonstrating that the scattering consists of rods in reciprocal space, each passing through a bulk peak and rotated away from the crystalline axes by an angle equal to the surface miscut. The cross-sectional profile of these rods is shown to be a direct probe of the surface height-height correlation function. For zero miscut, multiple rods overlap and previous results for flat surfaces are recovered. We consider the convolution of surface-diffraction profiles with a two-dimensional resolution function. © 1995 The American Physical Society.