Continuous contact atomization

The details of the development of the EBRD process have been described by Pietsch et al.[187] There are two alternative operation modes in addition to the above continuous non-contact mode. The first one may be referred to as continuous contact atomization. In this mode, liquid metal contacts the bottom surface of the container instead of melt dripping, and then flows continuously from the center to the rim of the container. The second one may be termed discontinuous non-contact atomization. In this mode, the container is first filled by dripping melt while it is rotating at a very low speed of about 3 x 10-3 radians/s. The rotating speed of the container is then enhanced to about 14 radians/s while the metal or alloy is remelted and atomized. More than one focused electron beam may be used to provide energy for melting metal. 

A range of metal contacts, thick film, thin film and combinations of these were used along with oxidized contacts. There was a marked improvement in the quality of subsequent glass layers when oxidized metal contacts were used, presumably due to the increased strength of the glass-to-metal interface. According to Pask (26), in order to realize continuity of atomic and electronic... 

Figure Bl.19.7. A series of time-lapse STM topographic images at room temperature showing a 40 mn x 40 mn area of Au(l 11). The time per frame is 8 mm, and each took about 5 min to scan. The steps shown are one atomic unit in height. The second frame shows craters left after tip-sample contact, which are two and three atoms deep. During a 2 h period the small craters have filled completely with diflhismg atoms, while the large craters continue to fill. (Taken from [29], figure 1.)...

FIGURE A.l A molecular representation of the three states of matter. In each case, the spheres represent particles that may be atoms, molecules, or ions, (a) In a solid, the particles are packed tightly together, but continue to oscillate, (b) In a liquid, the particles are in contact, but have enough energy to move past one another, (c) In a gas, the particles are far apart, move almost completely freely, and are in ceaseless random motion. 

The rapid rise in computer speed over recent years has led to atom-based simulations of liquid crystals becoming an important new area of research. Molecular mechanics and Monte Carlo studies of isolated liquid crystal molecules are now routine. However, care must be taken to model properly the influence of a nematic mean field if information about molecular structure in a mesophase is required. The current state-of-the-art consists of studies of (in the order of) 100 molecules in the bulk, in contact with a surface, or in a bilayer in contact with a solvent. Current simulation times can extend to around 10 ns and are sufficient to observe the growth of mesophases from an isotropic liquid. The results from a number of studies look very promising, and a wealth of structural and dynamic data now exists for bulk phases, monolayers and bilayers. Continued development of force fields for liquid crystals will be particularly important in the next few years, and particular emphasis must be placed on the development of all-atom force fields that are able to reproduce liquid phase densities for small molecules. Without these it will be difficult to obtain accurate phase transition temperatures. It will also be necessary to extend atomistic models to several thousand molecules to remove major system size effects which are present in all current work. This will be greatly facilitated by modern parallel simulation methods that allow molecular dynamics simulations to be carried out in parallel on multi-processor systems [115]. 

This view was given further support by the discovery of "tautomerism," that is, that some compounds behave as if they have two different structures simultaneously. Peter Laar suggested in 1886 that this can best be explained as the result of continual oscillation of a hydrogen atom between two positions within a single molecule, 109 a hypothesis influenced by Kekule s suggestion that the peculiarities of benzene are the result of an oscillation of atoms in benzene and that "equivalence" or valence is "the relative number of contacts which occur in a unit of time between atoms." 110... 

Upon dissolving Al into liquid Ga, the alumina layer that instantly forms from exposure to air or water at the surface is either discontinuous or porous. In either case the surface of the Ga-Al liquid is not passivated. As a result, when water contacts the surface of the liquid, Al atoms at the surface split the water, liberating hydrogen and heat with the formation of alumina. Since the liquid is fluid, the alumina cannot form a bonded layer at the liquid surface that would passivate pure, solid Al. Instead, the alumina is swept away by convection or agitation as a suspension of alumina particles in the water. The surface of the liquid alloy is now depleted of Al. This depleted region at the surface is replenished via diffusion or convection of Al from the bulk to the surface where it continues to split water. This process continues until all of the Al in the liquid alloy is converted to alumina. To summarize, liquid Al-Ga alloys rich in Ga split water because the Al component is not passivated as it is in solid pure Al. 

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