Harald Ibach

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Harald P. W. Ibach (born 15 April 1941 in Rheine) [1] is a German solid state physicist.

Contents

Education and career

Ibach received his doctorate in 1969 from RWTH Aachen University with his dissertation Thermische Ausdehnung von Silizium und Zinkoxid (Thermal expansion of silicon and zinc oxide) and habilitated there in 1972 with his habilitation thesis: Low energy electron spectroscopy — a tool for studies of surface vibrations. From 1975 he was a docent and then a professor ordinarius at RWTH Aachen University, as well as director of the Institut für Schichten und Grenzflächen (Institute for Layers and Interfaces), and chair for Experimental Physics IV A in Jülich. Since 2017 he is a visiting scientist at the Peter Grünberg Institut of the Forschungszentrum Jülich .

He is concerned with surface physics of solids and spectroscopic methods for this, electron energy loss spectroscopy, thin layers, adsorption and reaction of gases on surfaces, vibration spectroscopy on surfaces.

He is the co-author, with Hans Lüth  [ de ], of a German standard textbook on solid state physics. [2] He also wrote, with Douglas L. Mills, a standard reference on electron energy loss spectroscopy. [3]

In 1992 Ibach received the Europhysics Prize and in 1986 the Medard W. Welch Award.

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

Auger electron spectroscopy Analytical technique used specifically in the study of surfaces

Auger electron spectroscopy is a common analytical technique used specifically in the study of surfaces and, more generally, in the area of materials science. Underlying the spectroscopic technique is the Auger effect, as it has come to be called, which is based on the analysis of energetic electrons emitted from an excited atom after a series of internal relaxation events. The Auger effect was discovered independently by both Lise Meitner and Pierre Auger in the 1920s. Though the discovery was made by Meitner and initially reported in the journal Zeitschrift für Physik in 1922, Auger is credited with the discovery in most of the scientific community. Until the early 1950s Auger transitions were considered nuisance effects by spectroscopists, not containing much relevant material information, but studied so as to explain anomalies in X-ray spectroscopy data. Since 1953 however, AES has become a practical and straightforward characterization technique for probing chemical and compositional surface environments and has found applications in metallurgy, gas-phase chemistry, and throughout the microelectronics industry.

Surface science Study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases

Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid–gas interfaces, solid–vacuum interfaces, and liquid–gas interfaces. It includes the fields of surface chemistry and surface physics. Some related practical applications are classed as surface engineering. The science encompasses concepts such as heterogeneous catalysis, semiconductor device fabrication, fuel cells, self-assembled monolayers, and adhesives. Surface science is closely related to interface and colloid science. Interfacial chemistry and physics are common subjects for both. The methods are different. In addition, interface and colloid science studies macroscopic phenomena that occur in heterogeneous systems due to peculiarities of interfaces.

Brillouin zone Primitive cell in the reciprocal space lattice of crystals

In mathematics and solid state physics, the first Brillouin zone is a uniquely defined primitive cell in reciprocal space. In the same way the Bravais lattice is divided up into Wigner–Seitz cells in the real lattice, the reciprocal lattice is broken up into Brillouin zones. The boundaries of this cell are given by planes related to points on the reciprocal lattice. The importance of the Brillouin zone stems from the description of waves in a periodic medium given by Bloch's theorem, in which it is found that the solutions can be completely characterized by their behavior in a single Brillouin zone.

Photoemission spectroscopy

Photoemission spectroscopy (PES), also known as photoelectron spectroscopy, refers to energy measurement of electrons emitted from solids, gases or liquids by the photoelectric effect, in order to determine the binding energies of electrons in the substance. The term refers to various techniques, depending on whether the ionization energy is provided by X-ray, XUV or UV photons. Regardless of the incident photon beam, however, all photoelectron spectroscopy revolves around the general theme of surface analysis by measuring the ejected electrons.

Neutron scattering physical phenomenon

Neutron scattering, the irregular dispersal of free neutrons by matter, can refer to either the naturally occurring physical process itself or to the man-made experimental techniques that use the natural process for investigating materials. The natural/physical phenomenon is of elemental importance in nuclear engineering and the nuclear sciences. Regarding the experimental technique, understanding and manipulating neutron scattering is fundamental to the applications used in crystallography, physics, physical chemistry, biophysics, and materials research.

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High resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) is a tool used in surface science. The inelastic scattering of electrons from surfaces is utilized to study electronic excitations or vibrational modes of the surface of a material or of molecules adsorbed to a surface. In contrast to other electron energy loss spectroscopies (EELS), HREELS deals with small energy losses in the range of 10−3 eV to 1 eV. It plays an important role in the investigation of surface structure, catalysis, dispersion of surface phonons and the monitoring of epitaxial growth.

Inelastic mean free path

The inelastic mean free path (IMFP) is an index of how far an electron on average travels through a solid before losing energy.

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Core electrons are the electrons in an atom that are not valence electrons and do not participate in chemical bonding. The nucleus and the core electrons of an atom form the atomic core. Core electrons are tightly bound to the nucleus. Therefore, unlike valence electrons, core electrons play a secondary role in chemical bonding and reactions by screening the positive charge of the atomic nucleus from the valence electrons.

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Surface phonon

In solid state physics, a surface phonon is the quantum of a lattice vibration mode associated with a solid surface. Similar to the ordinary lattice vibrations in a bulk solid, the nature of surface vibrations depends on details of periodicity and symmetry of a crystal structure. Surface vibrations are however distinct from the bulk vibrations, as they arise from the abrupt termination of a crystal structure at the surface of a solid. Knowledge of surface phonon dispersion gives important information related to the amount of surface relaxation, the existence and distance between an adsorbate and the surface, and information regarding presence, quantity, and type of defects existing on the surface.

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Spin-polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy or SPEELS is a technique that is mainly used to measure the dispersion relation of the collective excitations, over the whole Brillouin zone.

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References

  1. biographical information from Kürschner, Gelehrtenkalender 2009
  2. Ibach, Harald; Lüth, Hans (1996). "Introduction". Solid-State Physics. ISBN   978-3-540-78092-2.
  3. Chernyshev, Aleksandr L.; Maradudin, Alexei A.; White, Steven R.; Yu, Clare (2012). "Douglas Leon Mills" (PDF). Physics Today. 65 (8): 62. Bibcode:2012PhT....65h..62C. doi: 10.1063/PT.3.1688 .