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About the research project:
Ever heard of Ernest Rutherford? He’s the legend who bombarded gold foil with high-energy alpha particles to prove that atoms consist of a massive nucleus surrounded by an electron shell. At this summer school, you can follow in Rutherford's footsteps and use ion beams to explore the materials that define modern technology - such as the glass found in your smartphone. The performance of your screen isn't just about the glass itself; it’s about the precise atomic composition of its surface. To see what’s actually happening at that level, we use LEIS (Low-Energy Ion Scattering)—a method so powerful it can analyse a single monoatomic layer at the very top of a sample.
You will learn all important aspects of surface analysis, get hands-on experience with the instrumentation inside the CEITEC cleanrooms, and discover how we detect “invisible” surface hydroxyls. To see the invisible, we need to "tag" it; in this project, zinc atoms serve as chemical markers to reveal the surface's secrets. From sample preparation to data interpretation, you will leave with a different perspective on the technology in your pocket.
Research project outline:
- Learn the fundamental physics of Low-Energy Ion Scattering analysis.
- Get hands-on experience cleaning and preparing samples inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber.
- Analyse a glass sample exposed to the air to discover what atmospheric contamination looks like at the atomic scale.
- Use atomic oxygen and controlled heating to transform the surface and observe the changes.
- Experiment with different noble gas ion beams and various energies to understand how they influence the resulting spectra.
- Analyse the spectra to summarise and interpret the results.
Capacity:
- 2 students
Research project leader:
