The United Service Magazine Volume 67 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851 edition. Excerpt: ...of materials degradation (ERDA Workshop Reports, l977). Research on surfaces and interfaces is possibly the most fruitful research topic in solids (Somerjai, l978). Yet, compared to our understanding about bulk properties, our understanding about the properties of surfaces is in its infancy. The strucutre and chemical complexity of surfaces and interfaces are even richer in variety than bulk materials; however, because the surface is only a few atomic layers deep, only recently could its structure and chemistry be analyzed. The properties of surfaces are very sensitive, not only to atomic arrangements at the surface, but also to the underlying bulk material. The extent of influence of the structural discontinuity into the bulk of the near-surface region may be in the range of a few atomic layers in metals to many atomic layers in ionic materials. Thermodynamic and structural models that include lattice strain and electrostatic effects have not yet been formulated; but it is already apparent that large differences in the distribution of impurities and electronic or atomic defects in the near surface regions should occur for metals, semiconductors, and insulators. The major experimental hurdle is that the sophisticated experimental techniques to study composition and structure of interfaces and surfaces (e.g., Auger, ESCA, SIMS, LEED, and STEM) are essentially low temperature, high vacuum methods, and the measured characteristics may not reflect the high temperature properties. Thus, the crucial need is for high temperature and environmental controlled stages on the instruments used in these and other new techniques, and for the careful coupling of indirect high temperature measurements of the properties of surfaces to more direct analytical...