Preface to first edition

Summary

Since the early 1960s or so there has been a virtual explosion in the level of research on solid surfaces. The importance of understanding surface processes in heterogeneous catalysis had been recognised since the early part of the twentieth century, but it was not until the 1960s, with the introduction and development of ultra-high-vacuum techniques, that real advances could be made, even using the ‘old’ techniques such as low energy electron diffraction (1927) and field emission (1936). The subsequent development of materials science and the growth of the semiconductor industry has added further surface problems for investigation while, at the same time, many new techniques have been introduced and exploited to study surfaces at the atomic level. For someone coming fresh to the field of surface physics or surface chemistry there seems to be a bewildering excess of different techniques, each commonly referred to by its acronym or unpronounceable string of initial letters. Much of the scientific literature in this field is occupied with technique-orientated studies of specific problems in which the strengths and limitations (particularly the latter!) of the technique or techniques used are rarely explained. Quite early in the development of surface science it became evident that surface problems should be tackled using a range of complementary techniques if a proper and complete understanding were to be obtained.