by
Prof. Helmut Dosch(MPI für Metallforschung, Stuttgart)
→
Europe/Berlin
DESY Auditorium
DESY Auditorium
Description
The presence of a surface or interface alters the structure and the associated properties of a given material in a characteristic manner. As this situation is omnipresent in condensed matter and materials science, it has been studied theoretically as well as experimentally in a systematic way. In order to unravel the generic phenomena associated with semi-infinite matter, binary alloys are the ideal test bed as they include all aspects of interest and appear still simple enough to be handled with current experimental and theoretical tools. Of particular interest is the microscopic understanding of the influence of interfaces onto the phase stability of a given system. Current research activities focus more and more onto “real-world” situations, i.e. onto environmentally and technologically relevant systems. Here, the ultimate challenge is to understand solid-liquid interfaces. In the lecture I review Synchrotron x-ray studies of semi-infinite materials and discuss the current state of understanding. I also discuss recent studies of ice and water at solid interfaces.