Surface Diffusion: Metals, Metal Atoms, and Clusters

Description

For the first time, this book unites the theory, experimental techniques and computational tools used to describe the diffusion of atoms, molecules and nanoparticles across metal surfaces. Starting with an outline of the formalism that describes diffusion on surfaces, the authors guide the reader through the principles of atomic movement, before moving on to diffusion under special circumstances, such as the presence of defects or foreign species. With an initial focus on the behaviour of single entities on a surface, later chapters address the movement of clusters of atoms and the interactions between adatoms. While there is a special emphasis on experimental work, attention is paid to the increasingly valuable contributions theoretical work has made in this field. This book has wide interdisciplinary appeal and is ideal for researchers in solid state physics, chemistry as well as materials science, and engineering.

Grazyna Antczak is a Humboldt Fellow in the Solid State Physics Department at Leibniz University, Hannover, Germany. She received her PhD from the Institute of Experimental Physics at the University of Wroclaw, Poland, where she is now an adjunct researcher. Dr Antczak is a Member of the American Physical Society and the Amercian Vacuum Society, and has had 15 publications in scientific journals. Gert Ehrlich is currently Research Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is internationally recognised as a pioneer in the area of surface diffusion, and has received numerous scientific honours and awards. Dr Ehrlich is an active member of various societies, and was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the New York Academy of Sciences. He has written almost 200 journal articles and has served on several editorial advisory boards.