Behavior of single atoms and clusters on solid surfaces

2 Behavior of single atoms and clusters on solid surfaces 

A particularly stringent requirement of experiments of this type is the vacuum condition. At 10 6 Torr background pressure, approximately 

In a study of this type, data are composed of single atom events. Statistical fluctuations of the data have to be carefully considered and a careful statistical analysis of the data has to be done before the conclusions derived can be statistically meaningful and reliable. Although there are many precautions which have to be taken in experiments of this type, because of the very well defined nature of these experiments the technique has now been developed to a high degree of reliability and field ion microscope studies of the behavior of single atoms are among the best established of all field ion experiments. 

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