Experimental Condensed Matter Physics - Surface Physics
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 1982. Surface physics,
fundamentals of ion-surface interactions, nonadiabatic charge
transfer, STM and X-ray studies of surface evolution during growth
and processing.
Research
There are two main areas of research in our laboratory. The first
is to use very low energy ion beam scattering techniques to study
the interactions of atoms with solid surfaces. We are particularly
interested in particle trapping at hyperthermal energies and
nonadiabatic electron transfer to single atoms moving near surfaces.
The trapping behavior is sensitive to the energy and angle of the
incident particles, a detailed understanding of which can be
obtained by comparing experiments with results from a large scale
trajectory simulation with accurate potentials. The electron transfer
that occurs is describable as electronic rearrangement in the near
surface region due to strong couplings of the atomic and metal
electrons. Many-body effects in the charge transfer can be observed
and modeled with a code that solves the time-dependent Schroedinger
equation for the atom-surface scattering and includes electron
correlation effects.
The second area of research is a relatively new program to study
surface evolution during growth and processing. Of particular
interest is the competition between roughening and smoothing
mechanisms during sputtering, annealing, and ion beam growth. We
are combining in-situ STM to study real space structures with
real-time X-ray scattering to probe the evolution of long range
order on the surface. We have recently observed pattern formation
during sputtering of a gold surface with argon ions, and are
investigating nonequilibrium growth with energetic ions.
Members of this group are:
- Ramana Murty - Postdoctoral Associate
- Andone Lavery - Graduate Student
- Aaron Judy - Graduate Student
- Chad Sosolik - Graduate Student
- Cayce Butler - Graduate Student
- Jenny Hampton - Graduate Student
- Josh Pomeroy - Graduate Student
- Alla Shundrovskaya - Graduate Student
Last modified: November 4, 1998
Douglas E. Milton, Sr.,
douglas@lassp.cornell.edu
