DESIGN OF AN ULTRAHIGH-VACUUM COMPATIBLE SYSTEM FOR STUDYING THE INFLUENCE OF ACOUSTIC-WAVES ON SURFACE CHEMICAL PROCESSES

So far, there have only been very few studies on the effects of acoust ic waves (AWs) on chemical processes involving the gas-solid interface . Acoustic induced desorption of residual gases has been shown to prov ide an alternative desorption route to the well established electron o r photon induced and thermal excitation channels. It has also been sho wn that the catalytic activity of a thin film can be increased by acou stic excitation. A novel ultrahigh resolution tunable acoustic spectro meter has been designed and is described in this paper, capable of exc iting a chemical system with narrowband AWs. A special UHV compatible sample holder has also been designed for the excitation of a metal sin gle crystal with AWs, using an edge bonded transducer. For the first t ime, InterDigital Transducers with a thin metal single crystal bonded onto the piezoelectric substrate can be used to investigate acoustic i nduced desorption under UHV conditions.