John Venables' Lecture notes on Surfaces and Thin Films

Lecture notes on Surfaces and Thin Films

© Arizona Board of Regents for Arizona State University and John A. Venables

These lecture notes by John A. Venables, originated in conjunction with lectures given at ASU in Spring 1996, and at EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) in Fall 1997, and have been reused, and in many cases updated, since then. They have been developed into a graduate teaching text Introduction to Surface and Thin Film Processes (Cambridge University Press, 2000), which can be ordered now! This text is open to the web, in the sense that it has been updated from these pages, and can incorporate your comments, questions and student projects. Some additional linked material is given in the Sussex QMMS course, which was initially presented in Fall 1999 and was given most recently in 2005-06.

Return to the Surfaces home page, the Course outline, or the Book contents

Section 1. Introduction to Surface Processes

Introduction to Surface Physics section 1.1
Surface Energies and the Wulff Theorem section 1.2
Kinetics versus Thermodynamics section 1.3
Introduction to Surface Reconstructions section 1.4
Introduction to Surface Electronics section 1.5

A more recent lecture given at EPFL on the topic of section 1.3 can be found at Introduction to Evaporation and Condensation; this section has been edited into chapter 1 of the book, and was updated in January 2003.

Section 2. Surfaces in Vacuum: UHV Techniques

Kinetic Theory Concepts section 2.1
Vacuum Concepts section 2.2
UHV Hardware section 2.3
Surface Preparation and In-Situ Experiments section 2.4
Laboratory Visit.

With the addition of a section on thin film deposition procedures, this section has been edited into chapter 2 of the book, and was updated in February-March 2005.

Section 3. Techniques for Examining Surfaces

Classification of Surface and Microscopy Techniques section 3.1
Diffraction and Quasi-Elastic Scattering section 3.2
Techniques for Chemical Analysis section 3.3
Quantification of Auger Spectra section 3.4
Microscopy-Spectroscopy: SEM, SAM, SPM, etc section 3.5

This section has been edited into chapter 3 of the book, under the more restrictive title: Electron-based techniques for examining surfaces.

Section A. Electric and Magnetic Processes at Metal Surfaces

Free Electron Theories and the Workfunction section A1
Electron Emission Phenomena section A2
Magnetic Processes at Surfaces section A3
Conduction Processes at Surfaces section A4 (notionally in preparation)

The material in this section has been expanded into chapter 6 and parts of chapter 8 of the book; I do not plan to reproduce the missing sections in the form of web-pages. Some additional material related to section A1 is given in the Sussex QMMS course in lectures four and five.

Section B. Electronic and Optical Processes at Semiconductor Surfaces

Pseudopotential Tight Binding Theory section B1
Semiconductor Surface Reconstructions section B2
Metal-Semiconductor Contacts section B3
Semiconductor Heterojunctions section B4

The material in this section has been expanded into chapter 7 and parts of chapter 8 of the book; I do not plan to reproduce the missing sections in the form of web-pages. Some additional material related to section B1 is given in the QMMS course in lectures seven and eight.

Section C. Surface Processes in Adsorption

Adsorption at Low Coverage sects. C1 and C2
Phase Diagrams and Phase Transitions section C3
Solid Mono- and Multi-layers section C4

More recent lectures given at EPFL on this topic can be found at Surface Processes in Adsorption and Chemisorption and Chemical Reactions. The material in this section has been edited and expanded into chapter 4 of the book.

Section E. Surface Processes in Epitaxial Growth

Growth Modes and Nucleation Barriers section E1
Atomistic Models and Rate Equations section E2
Experimental Examples section E3

More recent lectures given at EPFL on this topic can be found at Atomistic Models and Rate Equations and Experimental and Model Studies plus Continuation and Conclusions.The material in this section has been edited and expanded into chapter 5 of the book.

Latest version of this document: 17th January 2009.