Routine production of ultrahigh vacuum, new surface‐analytical techniques and more quantitative theories—all combine to open exciting prospects for the study and use of solid surfaces.
The intrinsic interest in an empty box is limited, however difficult the task of evacuating it may be. It is the new vistas in science and technology opened by the ability routinely to produce ultra‐high vacua as a controlled environment that excite our interest. The challenges of generating and measuring such vacua will be described in the following articles of this issue of PHYSICS TODAY. We devote our discussion to recent developments in the study of surface phenomena, an area of science that has been both a beneficiary of and contributor to advances in vacuum technology.
This article is only available in PDF format
References
1. C. B. Duke, Ann. Rev. Matl. Sci. 1, 165 (1971).
2. T. A. Carlson, PHYSICS TODAY, January 1972, page 30; R. L. Gerlach, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. 8, 599 (1971).https://doi.org/JVSTAL
26. R. J. Liefeld in Soft X‐Ray Band Spectra (D. J. Fabian, ed.), Academic, New York (1968).
27. J. R. Cuthill, A. J. McAlister, M. L. Williams, J. Appl. Phys. 39, 1810 (1970).https://doi.org/JAPIAU
28. Kai Siegbahn, C. Nordling, A. Fahlman, R. Nordberg, K. Hamrin, J. Hedman, G. Johansson, T. Bergmark, S.‐E. Karlsson, I. Lindgren, B. Lindberg, ESCA: Atomic, Molecular, and Solid State Structure Studied by Means of Electron Spectroscopy, Almqvist and Wiksells, Uppsala (1967).
Since the discovery was first reported in 1999, researchers have uncovered many aspects of the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect, but its underlying mechanisms remain unclear.