Gerald Leroy Fowler was a veteran of World War II, the lead technician in the Field Emission laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University and was a master technician in the Surface Science division at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was the author or co-authored of nine technical publications in refereed journals.
Gerald Leroy Fowler was a veteran of World War II, serving with the 1570th Engineering Heavy Shop Company and the 562nd Engineering Boat Maintenance Battalion. He received the Philippines Liberation Ribbon with one Bronze Star, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 2 Bronze Stars, and the World War II Victory Medal.
At the end of World War II "Gerry" was hired by Erwin Müller as the lead technician in the Field Emission laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University where he designed and constructed scientific instruments and helped to educate a cadre of undergraduate and graduate physics students. He was instrumental in the design and construction of the Atom probe and was recognized for his contribution in the first atom probe publication. [1]
Gerry retired from Penn State in 1975 and was immediately hired in the Surface Science division at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he published several technical papers [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] and received the “Department 1110 Technical Excellence Award” from Sandia National Laboratories in May 1990 and the “Outstanding Lifetime Contribution” award for Vacuum Science and Technology from the New Mexico Chapter of the American Vacuum Society in April 1994. Jerry received the 1988 Shop Note of the Year Award from the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology for his publication “Coaxial helium Leak detection Probe”. He retired from Sandia in 1994. In 1995 Gerry published his autobiography: My Little Corner of the World.
Fowler was a Charter Member of New Mexico Military Vehicle Preservation Association - Roadrunner Convoy in Albuquerque and the proud owner of “Henrietta” (an original military jeep) that he exhibited in parades and veteran events in New Mexico and Pennsylvania. Gerry died peacefully on October 21, 2010, at the age of 81.
The atom probe was introduced at the 14th Field Emission Symposium in 1967 by Erwin Wilhelm Müller and J. A. Panitz. It combined a field ion microscope with a mass spectrometer having a single particle detection capability and, for the first time, an instrument could “... determine the nature of one single atom seen on a metal surface and selected from neighboring atoms at the discretion of the observer”.
A cryopump or a "cryogenic pump" is a vacuum pump that traps gases and vapours by condensing them on a cold surface, but are only effective on some gases. The effectiveness depends on the freezing and boiling points of the gas relative to the cryopump's temperature. They are sometimes used to block particular contaminants, for example in front of a diffusion pump to trap backstreaming oil, or in front of a McLeod gauge to keep out water. In this function, they are called a cryotrap, waterpump or cold trap, even though the physical mechanism is the same as for a cryopump.
Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) is a branch of microscopy that forms images of surfaces using a physical probe that scans the specimen. SPM was founded in 1981, with the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope, an instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. The first successful scanning tunneling microscope experiment was done by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer. The key to their success was using a feedback loop to regulate gap distance between the sample and the probe.
Extreme ultraviolet radiation or high-energy ultraviolet radiation is electromagnetic radiation in the part of the electromagnetic spectrum spanning wavelengths shorter that the hydrogen Lyman-alpha line from 121 nm down to the X-ray band of 10 nm, and therefore having photons with energies from 10.26 eV up to 124.24 eV. EUV is naturally generated by the solar corona and artificially by plasma, high harmonic generation sources and synchrotron light sources. Since UVC extends to 100 nm, there is some overlap in the terms.
Atomic layer epitaxy (ALE), more generally known as atomic layer deposition (ALD), is a specialized form of thin film growth (epitaxy) that typically deposit alternating monolayers of two elements onto a substrate. The crystal lattice structure achieved is thin, uniform, and aligned with the structure of the substrate. The reactants are brought to the substrate as alternating pulses with "dead" times in between. ALE makes use of the fact that the incoming material is bound strongly until all sites available for chemisorption are occupied. The dead times are used to flush the excess material. It is mostly used in semiconductor fabrication to grow thin films of thickness in the nanometer scale.
Sculptured thin films (STFs) are nanostructured materials with unidirectionally varying properties that can be designed and realized in a controllable manner using variants of physical vapor deposition. The ability to virtually instantaneously change the growth direction of their columnar morphology, through simple variations in the direction of the incident vapor flux, leads to a wide spectrum of columnar forms.
Microstructured optical arrays (MOAs) are instruments for focusing x-rays. MOAs use total external reflection at grazing incidence from an array of small channels to bring x-rays to a common focus. This method of focusing means that MOAs exhibit low absorption. MOAs are used in applications that require x-ray focal spots in the order of few micrometers or below, such as radiobiology of individual cells. Current MOA-based focusing optics designs have two consecutive array components in order to reduce comatic aberration.
John A. Panitz is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. During his tenure at UNM he was Professor of Physics, Professor of High Technology Materials and Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology. Professor Panitz developed the first laboratory courseware that encouraged both critical thinking and role playing in the structured environment of a cooperative learning group. Before joining UNM Professor Panitz was in the Surface Science Division at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque where he patented the Field Desorption Spectrometer and the LiFE Detector. He is the founder and CEO of High Field Consultants and the owner and curator of Gallerie Imaginarium.
Electron beam ion trap (EBIT) is an electromagnetic bottle that produces and confines highly charged ions. An EBIT uses an electron beam focused with a powerful magnetic field to ionize atoms to high charge states by successive electron impact.
Rebecca W. Keller, Ph.D., incorporated Gravitas Publications Inc in 2003 to develop and publish core sciences curriculum under the Real Science-4-Kids imprint. She has authored and published Real Science-4-Kids student texts, teacher manuals, and student laboratory workbooks in chemistry, biology and physics to serve kindergarten through ninth grade, available through mainstream and home school book distributors.
Jonathan Harris Orloff is an American physicist, author and professor. Born in New York City, he is the eldest son of Monford Orloff and brother of pianist Carole Orloff and historian Chester Orloff. Orloff is known for his major fields of research in charged particle optics, applications of field emission processes, high-brightness electron and ion sources, focused ion and electron beams and their applications for micromachining, surface analysis and microscopy and instrumentation development for semiconductor device manufacturing.
S. Brooks McLane was the electronic technician in the Field Emission Laboratory at Penn State who, with Gerald Fowler and J. A. Panitz was responsible for developing the Atom-Probe Field Ion Microscope. An electronics specialist who received an M.S. degree from the Texas School of Arts and Industries, he was Assistant Professor of Physics at Davidson College in 1957 and co-authored several scientific papers including "Field Absorption and desorption of helium and neon" that appeared in Surface Science in 1969. Between 1964 and 1986 he co-wrote 8 separate articles in his field that appeared in the American Institute of Physics' Review of Scientific Instruments.
Mechanically Stimulated Gas Emission
Non-contact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM), also known as dynamic force microscopy (DFM), is a mode of atomic force microscopy, which itself is a type of scanning probe microscopy. In nc-AFM a sharp probe is moved close to the surface under study, the probe is then raster scanned across the surface, the image is then constructed from the force interactions during the scan. The probe is connected to a resonator, usually a silicon cantilever or a quartz crystal resonator. During measurements the sensor is driven so that it oscillates. The force interactions are measured either by measuring the change in amplitude of the oscillation at a constant frequency just off resonance or by measuring the change in resonant frequency directly using a feedback circuit to always drive the sensor on resonance.
A molecular drag pump is a type of vacuum pump that utilizes the drag of air molecules against a rotating surface. The most common sub-type is the Holweck pump, which contains a rotating cylinder with spiral grooves which direct the gas from the high vacuum side of the pump to the low vacuum side of the pump. The older Gaede pump design is similar, but is much less common due to disadvantages in pumping speed. In general, molecular drag pumps are more efficient for heavy gasses, so the lighter gasses will make up the majority of the residual gasses left after running a molecular drag pump.
Valentin Borisovich Aleskovsky was a Soviet and Russian scientist and administrator known for his pioneering research on surface reactions underpinning the thin film deposition technique that years later became known as atomic layer deposition. He was the rector of Leningrad Technological Institute (1962-75) and of Leningrad State University (1975-1986).
High Field Consultants was founded in 1993 by J. A. Panitz to provide atom probe expertise to industry and academia. More specifically, they specialize in analysis, developing techniques from atom scale imaging, and high electric field phenomena investigation.
A probe tip is an instrument used in scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) to scan the surface of a sample and make nano-scale images of surfaces and structures. The probe tip is mounted on the end of a cantilever and can be as sharp as a single atom. In microscopy, probe tip geometry and the composition of both the tip and the surface being probed directly affect resolution and imaging quality. Tip size and shape are extremely important in monitoring and detecting interactions between surfaces. SPMs can precisely measure electrostatic forces, magnetic forces, chemical bonding, Van der Waals forces, and capillary forces. SPMs can also reveal the morphology and topography of a surface.
Manganese disilicide (MnSi2) is an intermetallic compound, a silicide of manganese. It is a non-stoichiometric compound, with a silicon deficiency expressed as MnSi2–x. Crystal structures of many MnSi2–x compounds resemble a chimney ladder and are called Nowotny phases. They include MnSi2 (x=0), Mn4Si7 (x=0.250), Mn11Si19 (x=0.273), Mn15Si26 (x=0.267) and Mn27Si47 (x=0.259). These phases have very similar unit cells whose length varies from 1.75 nm for MnSi2 or Mn4Si7, which have almost the same structures, to 11.8 nm for Mn27Si47.
Irving Philip Herman is an American physicist and the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Applied Physics at Columbia University. He is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and of Optica, the former for "distinguished accomplishments in laser physics, notably the development and application of laser techniques to probe and control materials processing".