High island densities in pulsed laser deposition: causes and implications.

By studying metal growth on Pt(111), we determine the reasons for the high island densities observed in pulsed laser deposition (PLD) compared to conventional thermal deposition. For homoepitaxy by PLD with moderate energies ( < or approximately 100 eV) of the deposited ions, high island densities are caused by the high instantaneous flux of arriving particles. Additional nuclei are formed at high ion energies (> or approximately 200 eV) by adatoms created by the impinging ions.

Time-of-flight spectroscopy of the energy distribution of laser-ablated atoms and ions.

The growth of ultrathin films, deposited by laser ablation, crucially depends on the energy of the ablated species. Therefore, a time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometer has been constructed and measurements have been carried out in order to determine the energy distribution of laser-ablated Fe and Pt atoms and ions in the plasma created by nanosecond pulses of a frequency-doubled neodymium doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser. The experiments have been performed in ultrahigh vacuum at relatively low laser power.

Approaches for the coating of capillary columns with highly phenylated stationary phases for high-temperature GC.

Two highly phenylated tetramethyl-p-silphenylene-diphenylsiloxane copolymers were coated on fused silica capillary columns and used as stationary phases in GC. The copolymers offered new insights into the coating process and column preparation due to their physicochemical properties. The fused silica capillary surface had to be pretreated in various ways to achieve a homogeneous film and a well deactivated surface: etching with ammonium bifluoride; leaching with sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid; silylation with tetraphenyldimethyldisilazane and triphenylsilylamine.