Material topography

The two transects crossed multiple, complex environments with widely diverse surficial materials, topography, climate, landforms, land covers, and land uses. A north-to-south (N-S) transect extended from northern Manitoba, Canada, to the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas. A west-to-east (W-E) transect followed the 38th parallel from just north of San... 

A soil is a naturally occurring three-dimensional body with morphology and piopeities resulting fioni effects of climate, floia and fauna, paient rock materials, topography, and time. A soil occupies a portion of the land surface, is mappable and is composed of horizons that parallel the land surface. A vertical section downward through all the horizons of the soil is called a soil profile. See Fig. 1. 

Dokuchaev (1879) and Jenny (1941) proposed that five independent state factors (climate, parent material, topography, time, and potential biota) govern the properties of soils and ecosystems... 

The shapes, disposition of a magnet relatively to the each other and relatively to the pattern are defined in calculation of magnetic field topography [4]. The geometry like magnets has the fields of identical configuration. It gives the possibility to carry out the calculations as for ferrets so for rare-earth materials. 

Scaiming probe microscopies have become the most conspicuous surface analysis tecimiques since their invention in the mid-1980s and the awarding of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics [71, 72]- The basic idea behind these tecimiques is to move an extremely fine tip close to a surface and to monitor a signal as a fiinction of the tip s position above the surface. The tip is moved with the use of piezoelectric materials, which can control the position of a tip to a sub-Angstrom accuracy, while a signal is measured that is indicative of the surface topography. These tecimiques are described in detail in section BI.20. 

Figure Bl.19.24. Friction loop and topography on a heterogeneous stepped surface. Terraces (2) and (3) are composed of different materials. In regions (1) and (4), the cantilever sticks to the sample surface because of static friction The sliding friction is tj on part (2) and on part 3. In a torsional force image, the contrast difference is caused by the relative sliding friction, Morphological effects may be...

Solid-wa.ste-filling plan. The specific method of filling will depend on the characteristics of the site, such as the amount of available cover material, the topography, and local hydrology and geology. To assess future development plans, it will be necessary to prepare a detailed plan for the layout of the individual solid-waste cells. On the basis of the characteristics of the site or the method of operation (e.g., gas recovery), it may be necessaiy to incorporate special features for the control of the movement of gases and leachate from the landfill. 

STM and SFM are free from many of the artifacts that afflict other kinds of profilometers. Optical profilometers can experience complicated phase shifts when materials with different optical properties are encountered. The SFM is sensitive to topography oidy, independent of the optical properties of the surface. (STM may be sensitive to the optical properties of the material inasmuch as optical properties are related to electronic structure.) The tips of traditional stylus profilometers exert forces that can damage the surfaces of soft materials, whereas the force on SFM tips is many orders of magnitude lower. SFM can image even the tracks left by other stylus profilometers. 

Profilometry of softer materials, such as polymers, is also possible with SFM, and with STM if the sample is conducting. Low forces on the SFM tip allow imaging of materials whose surfaces are degraded by traditional stylus profilometry. However, when the surface is soft enough that it deforms under pressure from the SFM tip, resolution will be degraded and topography may not be representative of the true... 

The sputtering process is frequendy used in both the processing (e.g., ion etching) and characterization of materials. Many materials develop nonuniformities, such as cones and ridges, under ion bombardment. Polycrystalline materials, in particular, have grains and grain boundaries that can sputter at different rates. Impurities can also influence the formation of surface topography. ... 

Another characteristic of a polymer surface is the surface structure and topography. With amorphous polymers it is possible to prepare very smooth and flat surfaces (see Sect. 2.4). One example is the PMIM-picture shown in Fig. 7a where the root-mean-square roughness is better than 0.8 ran. Similar values are obtained from XR-measurements of polymer surfaces [44, 61, 62], Those values compare quite well with observed roughnesses of low molecular weight materials. Thus for instance, the roughness of a water surface is determined by XR to 0.32 nm... 

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