PHY 598 (Venables) Sect 2.1
Notes for PHY 598 Sect 2.1 (Venables)
© Arizona Board of Regents for Arizona State University
and John A. Venables
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Lecture notes by John A. Venables. Notes revised for Spring 2005:
Latest version 6 February 2005
2. Surfaces in Vacuum: Ultrahigh Vacuum Techniques
Refs: Prutton, Introduction, p5-10 and Luth, Panel I, p6-17
give an introduction to the 'feel' of surface science
apparatus and experiments. Woodruff and Delchar devote Chap 1
to this topic amongst others. It is probably not possible to
do justice to this topic in a book: it would take too much
space, but Luth has made a brave attempt within the allotted
number of pages. More detailed books exist, which you may wish
to look at, including A. Roth, Vacuum Technology (3rd Edn, 1990),
and J.F. O'Hanlon, A Users Guide to Vacuum Technology (1989);
I'd be interested to know which book of this type you found
actually useful, except for reference.
Manufacturers’ catalogues are useful, assuming that you know
that they are attempting to get you to buy something (in the
long run). Although all such catalogues provide detailed
information about the products, the Leybold-Heraeus catalogue
has traditionally included a tutorial section which helps one
understand what the products are doing, and what choices the
purchaser needs to make. Relatively small performance
improvements in vacuum components can cause quite a commercial
stir. So one always needs to consider what the latest model,
or flavor of the month, is really doing.
I will emphasize the physical principles on which these devices
are based, in the hope that these do not change too fast. Also,
you may not have to buy anything. Surface Science is now a
fairly mature discipline, so there will be kit lying around.
But you need to know what it can, and cannot, do. In practice
there is no substitute for visiting, and then working in, a
Surface Science laboratory, each of which will have its own
practices and recipes. So we will arrange a lab visit for those
of you not already working in this environment, before too long.
2.1 Kinetic Theory Concepts
Arrival Rate of Atoms at a Surface
The Molecular Density
Note added 13 may '02:
There is a typographic error in the second equation for n (below),
which should have (p/T) on the right hand side, not /T. Thanks to
Karsten Pohl for spotting this mistake.
The Mean Free Path
The Monolayer Arrival Time
Continue to section 2.2
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