We report an extensive structural characterization of the surface of 1T-PtTe 2 crystals by means of helium atom scattering (HAS) and ultra-high resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). HAS reveals that this bi-dimensional surface presents a large structural corrugation (~) in direction. The surface lattice constant of PtTe 2 derived from the positions of the helium diffraction peaks up to fifth order was found to be, in agreement with STM and x-ray diffraction measurements. This value remains unchanged in the temperature range between 90 and 580 K. These findings suggest that 1T-PtTe 2 behaves similarly to graphene on a weakly-interacting substrate, for which the surface thermal expansion coefficient is zero within experimental error. The electron–phonon coupling constant has been determined by recording the thermal attenuation of the elastic diffraction peaks of PtTe 2. Based on a recently developed …