This text is the first of a two-volume work on molecule surface interactions addressing topics in chemical physics, surface science, physical chemistry, materials science, and electronics and semiconductor manufacture. As with the other titles in the Advances in Chemical Physics series, the chapters are written by an international group of contributors and cover a wide range of important issues in the field.

This text is the first of a two-volume work on molecule surface interactions addressing topics in chemical physics, surface science, physical chemistry, materials science, and electronics and semiconductor manufacture. As with the other titles in the Advances in Chemical Physics series, the chapters are written by an international group of contributors and cover a wide range of important issues in the field.

There is considerable interest, both fundamental and technological, in the way atoms and molecules interact with solid surfaces. Thus the description of heterogeneous catalysis and other surface reactions requires a detailed understand ing of molecule-surface interactions. The primary aim of this volume is to provide fairly broad coverage of atoms and molecules in interaction with a variety of solid surfaces at a level suitable for graduate students and research workers in condensed matter physics, chemical physics, and materials science. The book is intended for experimental workers with interests in basic theory and concepts and had its origins in a Spring College held at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Miramare, Trieste. Valuable background reading can be found in the graduate-Ievel introduction to the physics of solid surfaces by ZangwilI(1) and in the earlier works by Garcia Moliner and F1ores(2) and Somorjai.(3) For specifically molecule-surface interac tions, additional background can be found in Rhodin and Ertl(4) and March.(S) V. Bortolani N. H. March M. P. Tosi References 1. A. Zangwill, Physics at Surfaces, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1988). 2. F. Garcia-Moliner and F. Flores, Introduction to the Theory of Solid Surfaces, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1979). 3. G. A. Somorjai, Chemistry in Two Dimensions: Surfaces, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York (1981). 4. T. N. Rhodin and G. Erd, The Nature of the Surface Chemical Bond, North-Holland, Amsterdam (1979). 5. N. H. March, Chemical Bonds outside Metal Surfaces, Plenum Press, New York (1986).

This text is the first of a two-volume work on molecule surface interactions addressing topics in chemical physics, surface science, physical chemistry, materials science, and electronics and semiconductor manufacture. As with the other titles in the Advances in Chemical Physics series, the chapters are written by an international group of contributors and cover a wide range of important issues in the field.

In a classical approach materials science is mainly dealing with interatomic interactions within molecules, without paying much interest on weak intermolecular interactions. However, the variety of structures actually is the result of weak ordering because of noncovalent interactions. Indeed, for self-assembly to be possible in soft materials, it is evident that forces between molecules must be much weaker than covalent bonds between the atoms of a molecule. The weak intermolecular interactions responsible for molecular ordering in soft materials include hydrogen bonds, coordination bonds in ligands and complexes, ionic and dipolar interactions, van der Waals forces, and hydrophobic interactions. Recent evolutions in nanosciences and nanotechnologies provide strong arguments to support the opportunity and importance of the topics approached in this book, the fundamental and applicative aspects related to molecular interactions being of large interest in both research and innovative environments. We expect this book to have a strong impact at various education and research training levels, for young and experienced researchers from both academia and industry.

Electron emission is a fundamental phenomenon which accompanies most interactions of energetic particles with solid surfaces. Not only is it a special effect which for almost ninety years has attracted the interest of physicists, but it is also of acute importance in such fields as radiation effects and transport phenomena in solids (e.g., radiation biology), plasma-surface interactions, microtechnology, surface analysis, ion microscopies, particle detector development and others. While Volume I emphasizes the theoretical description of the mechanisms of electron emission, this volume reviews modern experimental trends and aspects of the phenomenon, e.g., kinetic electron emission from massive solids and from thin foils under bombardment with positive, negative, and neutral particles, and the measurement of electron statistics in connection with potential and kinetic emission due to slow singly and multiply charged projectiles.