Approximate solution of the inversion problem for atom-surface scattering

It is shown that atom-surface interaction potentials can be recovered from the diffraction peak intensities measured in beam scattering experiments by a direct, simple inversion method. The potential is determined uniquely, apart from a term depending only on the coordinate perpendicular to the surface. The method does not assume any parametrized functional form for the potential. The results are obtained for a rigid surface, using the sudden approximation for the scattering dynamics. Application to a test case using simulated data for Ne/W (110) yielded an inverted potential of remarkable accuracy.