Synchrotron-based Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy

Solid/vapor and liquid/vapor interfaces govern many processes in the environment and atmosphere, energy generation, and electrochemical devices as well as heterogeneous catalysis. Examples include catalytic converters in automobiles [1 G. Ertl, Nobel Lecture, http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2007/ertl-lecture.html. [Google Scholar]], solid oxide fuel cells [2 C.S. Subhash and K. Keven (eds.), High Temperature and Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Elsevier, Oxford, UK (2003). [Google Scholar]], cloud droplet nucleation on atmospheric aerosol particles [3 B.J. Finlayson-Pitts and James N. Pitts, Jr., Chemistry of the Upper and Lower Atmosphere, Academic Press, London (2000).[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]], as well as the interaction of trace gases with polar snow packs [4 F. Dominé and P.B. Shepson, Science 297, 1506 (2002).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]. A fundamental understanding of the molecular processes at these interfaces requires experimental methods that allow the investigation of samples under as close to operating conditions as possible. This kind of investigation has become increasingly important over the last few decades, leading to the development of a number of surface-sensitive, in-situ spectroscopies and microscopies, including infrared spectroscopy (IR) [5 S.J. Peters and G.E. Ewing, J. Phys. Chem. B 101, 10880 (1997).[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 6 V. Sadtchenko, Langmuir 18, 4632 (2002).[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]; vibrational sum-frequency generation (VSFG) [7 Y.R. Shen, Nature 337, 519 (1989).[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 8 G. Rupprechter, MRS Bulletin 34, 1031 (2007).[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]; X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) [9 J. Forsberg, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 78, 083110 (2007).[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]; surface X-ray diffraction (SXRD) [10 S. Ferrer, M.D. Ackermann, and E. Lundgren, MRS Bulletin 32, 1010 (2007).[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]; scanning force microscopy (SFM) in both contact [11 G. Binnig, C.F. Quate, and C. Gerber, Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 930 (1986).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] and non-contact [12 J. Hu, Science 268, 267 (1995).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] modes; scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [13 B.L.M. Hendriksen and J.W.M. Frenken, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 046101 (2002).[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]; as well as transmission electron microscopy [14 T.W. Hansen, Science 294, 1508 (2001).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] and scanning electron microscopy [15 A.M. Donald, Nat. Mat. 2, 511 (2003).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]].