NOVEL FORMATION AND DECAY MECHANISMS OF NANOSTRUCTURES ON THE SURFACE

For decades the research on thin-film growth has attracted considerable attention as these kinds of materials have the potential for a new generation of device application. It is known that the nuclei at the initial stage of the islands are more stable than others and certain atoms are inert while others are active. In this paper, by using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, we will show that, when a surfactant layer is used to mediate the growth, a counter-intuitive fractal-to-compact island shape transition can be induced by increasing deposition flux or decreasing growth temperature. Specifically, we introduce a reaction-limited aggregation (RLA) theory, where the physical process controlling the island shape transition is the shielding effect of adatoms stuck to the stable islands on the incoming adatoms. Moreover, the origin of a transition from triangular to hexagonal and then to inverted triangular as well as the decay characteristics of three-dimensional islands on the surface and relations of our unique predictions with recent experiments will be discussed. Furthermore, we will present a novel idea to make use of the condensation energy of adatoms to control the island evolution along a special direction.     

Hydrogen-induced reconstruction on a high step density W(001) surface

The hydrogen-induced reconstruction on a high step density W(001) crystal, ($\text{2}\text{×}\text{2}$)R45°-H, with steps oriented parallel to the [110] and ～ 28 Å average terrace width has been investigated using LEED symmetry, beam shape analyses, and EELS. The symmetry of the LEED pattern is observed to change from p2mg for the ($\text{2}\text{×}\text{2}$)R45° clean surface reconstruction to c2mm for the commensurate phase ($\text{2}\text{×}\text{2}$)R45°-H reconstruction. Correspondingly, the shapes of the half-order beams indicate that the hydrogen-induced reconstruction domains are much less elongated than the clean surface domains. A splitting of each half-order beam into four beams at higher exposures indicates the existence of two domains of the incommensurate phase. A commensurate phase v₁ vibrational loss peak centered at 160 meV in the EELS spectrum broadens on the low-energy side during the incommensurate phase and then shifts toward 130 meV and narrows as the (1×1)-H saturation structure develops. These observations imply that there is no long-range inhibition ( ～ 20 Å) to the formation of either commensurate or incommensurate phase; hydrogen induces a switching of the atomic displacements from 〈110〉 directions on a clean surface to 〈100〉 directions, even with steps oriented parallel to the [110]; and in the incommensurate phase there is a distribution of hydrogen site geometries with the most probable geometry more like the commensurate phase geometry than the saturation phase geometry.     

Perchlorate in water via US Environmental Protection Agency Method 331 Determination of method uncertainties, lowest concentration minimum reporting levels, and Hubaux-Vos detection limits in reagent water and simulated drinking water

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Method 331 determines perchlorate in drinking water using non-suppressed ion chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. This study reports the results of calibration and recovery studies in reagent water, as well as of a recovery study in simulated drinking water (i.e., total dissolved solids are 500 mg/mL each of chloride, sulfate, and bicarbonate). The perchlorate concentrations in the study ranged from 0.05 to 64 ng/mL. At 95% confidence, the Hubaux-Vos detection limit (H-V DL) was 0.04 ng/mL for the calibration study and the simulated-drinking-water recovery study, and 0.03 ng/mL for the reagent-water recovery study. The lowest concentration minimum reporting level was 0.03 ng/mL for reagent water and 0.0 7 ng/mL for simulated drinking water, again at 95% confidence.     

Vicinal and on-axis surfaces of 6H-SiC(0001) thin films observed by scanning tunneling microscopy

Surfaces of 6H-SiC(0001) homoepitaxial layers deposited on vicinal (3.5° off (0001) towards [11 0]) and on-axis 6H---SiC wafers by chemical vapour deposition have been investigated using ultra-high vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy. Undulating step configurations were observed on both the on-axis and the vicinal surfaces. The former surface possessed wider terraces than the latter. Step heights on both surfaces were 0.25 nm corresponding to single bilayers containing one Si and one C layer. After annealing at T>1100°C for 3–5 min in UHV, selected terraces contained honeycomb-like regions caused by the transformation to a graphitic surface as a result of Si sublimation. A model of the observed step configuration has been proposed based on the observation of the [ 110] or [1 10] orientations of the steps and energetic considerations. Additional deposition of very thin (2 nm) SiC films on the above samples by gas source molecular beam epitaxy was performed to observe the evolution of the surface structure. Step bunching and growth of 6H---SiC layers and formation of 3C---SiC islands were observed on the vicinal and the on-axis surfaces, respectively, and controlled by the diffusion lengths of the adatoms.     

Improvements to EPA method 531.1 for the analysis of carbamates that resulted in the development of U.S. EPA Method 531.2

This project is undertaken to fully optimize the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Method 531.1 post-column chemistries and to incorporate recent advances in liquid chromatographic separation, post-column derivatization, and detection techniques. Sample preservation and storage stability studies establish citric acid as a suitable replacement for the caustic monochloroacetic acid in the current method and confirm its antimicrobial effectiveness. Performance of an alternate set of commercially available post-column reagents is also investigated. This research has resulted in the publication of Method 531.2, a high-performance liquid chromatographic direct injection method for the analysis of N-methylcarbamoyloximes and N-methylcarbamates using post-column derivatization and fluorescence detection.