LEED and clean metal surfaces: personal reminiscences and opinions

The early history of surface structure determination of clean metals from LEED intensities at IBM Research and in collaboration with SUNY at Stony Brook (1964-1975) is sketched. The reasons for the success of LEED intensity analysis in establishing the structure of clean metal surfaces at that time are discussed. A selective overview of the rich phenomenology of metal surface structure as we know it today is given. Personal comments are made on important current and future developments in LEED theory. © 1994.