Surface Science Spectra

It is a pleasure to give a mid-term message of good progress to those interested in the development of Surface Science Spectra. It is a moment to recall that last year the 2012 Journal was complete and print versions posted to all subscribing institutions on the first working day of 2013. We are already receiving submissions for the current year but would like more - now is the time, for all those who wished to see timely publication by this important Journal, to put it to the test! Send your SSS submissions now.

To see an example of how XPS, through the vehicle of SSS, can help in your research on hidden interfaces see the set of papers on the Si₃N+/TiN Interface published inVolume 19. As explained by the authors (including my co-editor, Rick Haasch) in an Introduction to this set, the interaction of the two materials across a prepared interface is revealed by changes in the intensity of the Ti2p satellites. The importance of charge transfer across the interface is shown dramatically in the figure reproduced below. Notice how the satellite intensity changes with overlayer growth conditions from that of the open TiN surface to give, eventually, a satellite peak almost as intense as the photoelectron peak itself.

Generalizing the importance of this set, it shows that the partial electron transparency of thin layers can be a real advantage in understanding the behavior of hidden interfaces – especially when combined with the additional power offered by angle resolution.

We are very happy to publish, as a set, papers on closely related properties such as those describing interfaces and expect to have more of this type in the current volume.

James Castle

Surface Science Spectra Editor

Introduction by James Castle, SSS Editor

In the late 1950’s, as part of my PhD studies I had a need to remove ppm traces of hydrocarbons from otherwise pure oxygen (I had discovered that they influenced the oxidation of magnesium). As a result I came to appreciate the efficacy of the Arneil catalyst (copper oxide on Kieselguhr) for this purpose.   Now, in the volume of SSS that is just going to print we have a fine set of spectra from a modern version of this class of catalysts in which CuO and other oxides are distributed within a perovskite structure.  CuO/La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-Powder by XPS, Marta Maria Natile, Alessandro Galenda, Fabio Poletto, and Antonella Glisenti, SSS, Vol 15,
This is one of three articles in volume 15 from the group at the Università di Padova, Italy, which deal with the distribution of metals oxides on porous supports to yield enhanced catalytic activity. Read more

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