Infrared studies of chemisorbed layers on single crystals

The technique of reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) is considered from an experimentalist's point of view. After a short historical introduction, we describe the fundamental principles of RAIRS and discuss the conditions necessary to optimise its performance. This is followed by a very brief description of other surface-sensitive vibrational spectroscopies and a survey of the results obtained by applying RAIRS to metal crystal surfaces.