HIGH-RESOLUTION, WIDE-RANGE, THERMAL-DESORPTION SPECTROMETRY OF RARE-GAS LAYERS - STICKING, DESORPTION-KINETICS, LAYER GROWTH, PHASE-TRANSITIONS, AND EXCHANGE PROCESSES

Dynamical range, resolution, and accuracy of thermal desorption spectroscopies (programmed and isothermal) have been considerably improved, and coupled with sample temperatures down to 5 K, to study adsorption and desorption kinetics of Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe on Ru(001). Layerwise growth is observed in all cases. Sticking increases markedly with coverage to saturate only at 2 monolayers and exhibits a quantum effect at zero coverage at least for Ne and Ar. Desorption rates show influences of layer structure, island growth, intralayer phase transitions, and non-equilibrium effects, of minority species, and of exchange processes in adsorption and desorption.