Theoretical calculations of He scattering intensities from MgO

We report close-coupling calculations of the specular intensity of He atoms scattered from the (100) surface of MgO. The atom-surface interactions used in this study were developed within a semiempirical effective-medium theory. We find good agreement between the experimentally determined and theoretically calculated specular scattering intensities. We further identify features in the theoretical spectra that are sensitive to the size of the Fourier components, which can be used to refine further the input potentials.