Atomic Clusters: From Gas Phase to Deposited brings together a series of chapters, prepared by acknowledged experts in their fields. Both fundamental and practical aspects are addressed of the physics and chemistry of a novel state of matter, namely clusters of small numbers of atoms of nanometre dimensions. This is a field of nanoscience that existed before the word was invented, but has particularly achieved major advances in the recent years.
* Contributions from leading experts in solid surfaces research
* Cluster science is concerned with the properties of materials on the nano-metre scale
* Brings together work on both free (gas-phase) clusters and those deposited on surfaces

Description
Surface Alloys and Alloy Surfaces is concerned with the structural, compositional, electronic and chemical properties of the surfaces of solids in which the surface layers, at least are alloyed. Two different categories of system are covered - the surfaces of bulk alloys (alloy surfaces) and surface phases in which one or more outermost atomic layers are alloyed, while the underlying bulk involves no such intermixing (surface alloys).
Importance of Topic
The surfaces of bulk alloys have long been known to be of practical interest for their chemical properties. It has also long been known that the surface composition of such alloys commonly differs from that of the underlying bulk. However, our understanding of these chemical and physical phenomena is far from complete and the application of surface science methods to investigate these phenomena is a manifestation of a general trend to study the surfaces of increasing complexity. Surface alloy formation, as a much more recently recognized phenomenon deserves more attention.
Why This Title
This title is important as it provides new insights into a mixture of new and old problems. It is the first to cover the important mixture of material on surface alloys and alloy surfaces. Each chapter is written by experts in different areas of these two interrelated topics, covering theory and experiment, physics and chemistry, geometrical and electronic structure. The coverage of the surface alloy topic is especially novel as it is relatively newly-recognised as quite a common phenomenon.

The book is a multi-author survey (in 15 chapters) of the current state of knowledge and recent developments in our understanding of oxide surfaces. The author list includes most of the acknowledged world experts in this field. The material covered includes fundamental theory and experimental studies of the geometrical, vibrational and electronic structure of such surfaces, but with a special emphasis on the chemical properties and associated reactivity. The main focus is on metal oxides but coverage extends from 'simple' rocksalt materials such as MgO through to complex transition metal oxides with different valencies.

The nature of the solid-liquid interface, the mechanism associated with its movement, and its preferential morphologies, impose important boundary conditions on the technology of crystal growth from the melt. This 1973 book sets out to describe these basic physical changes which underlie all of the important range of melt growth techniques irrespective of the special problems of individual materials and particular experimental techniques. It will be of particular value to senior undergraduates and graduate students of the science of materials. Dr Woodruff begins by considering Gibbs's 1878 work on the basic thermodynamics of an interface, and moves on to examine experimental aspects of the solid-liquid interfacial free energy. The theory of the morphological stability of the interface is also studied, along with the kinetics of crystal growth, and there is a useful chapter on eutectic growth. Throughout, the macroscopic properties of the materials under discussion are linked to relevant theory.

The book describes the physical basis of all of the principal and the majority of the more specialized techniques used today in studies of well-characterized solid surfaces. The techniques are grouped according to the underlying physics and are described in nine chapters. The treatment of each technique concentrates on the basic physical principles, and illustrates its use with selected examples with an emphasis on understanding the concepts. Included in each of these discussions is a view of the strengths, the weaknesses, and the complementary aspects of the individual methods. Although some mention is included of the potential use of some of the methods to study technical surfaces, the emphasis of the examples is taken from studies of the basic chemistry and physics of well-characterized surfaces under ultra-high vacuum conditions, aimed at elucidating their structural, compositional, electronic, and vibrational properties. This edition includes new material on synchrotron radiation related techniques, scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy.