Book Reviews

Proceedings of the Fourth International Vacuum Congress. Parts 1 and 2

Published by the Institute of Physics and the Physical Society, 47 Belgrave Square, London S.W. 1. on behalf of the British Joint Committee for Vacuum Science and Technology.

The 4th International Vacuum Congress was held at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology on April 17-20, 1968, and the Proceedings have now been published in two volumes which can be ordered separately at a cost of £6.5.0 post free (U.S. $15). Altogether, more than 150 individual papers covering all aspects of vacuum science and technology have been reproduced.

The contents of Part 1 include sessions on

Standards, Units and Terminology Drying, Chemical and Biological Applications Sorption and Desorption Surface Phenomena Space Simulation Particle Accelerators and Nuclear-Fission Apparatus.

Sessions on Ion Pumps and Getter Pumps, Sorption Pumping and Cryopumping are included in the first part. In addition there are short sessions on Electron Tube Systems and Devices, and Gas Kinetics.

Part 2 contains sessions on

Vacuum Metallurgy Vacuum Deposition of Thin Films Pressure Measurement and Gas Analysis Vacuum Systems Materials and Components.

It is interesting to note that a short session on education has been included in Part 2 with one paper giving the student view of a sandwich degree course in va- cuum technology.

The complete work represents a broad and useful review of progress in vacuum science and technology, and will be extremely useful both to vacuum scientists and engineers anxious to keep abreast of trends in their profession, and also to the specialists who are catered for in the wide range of topics covered. A certain amount of imbalance is inevitable in the proceedings of a major interna- tional conference because the range of papers offered tends to reflect the interest in certain popular or topical fields of activity. Thus, there is an accent upon surface sciences, e.g. sorption phenomena, and the physics of vacuum processes, e.g. pressure measurement and analysis, rather than on the industrial applications of

Thin Solid Films, 3 (1969) 447-448. Elsevier, Lausanne - Printed in the Netherlands

448 BOOK REVIEW

vacuum. The section of vacuum metallurgy is comparatively short and there is a noticeable lack of papers on vacuum as a processing medium. However, there is a useful range of papers on thin films which are concerned principally with control and measurement of the deposition processes rather than with the properties and applications of films themselves.

The Physical Basis of Ultrahigh Vacuum. P. A. REDHEAD, J. P. HOBSON and E. V. KORNELSEN, Chapman and Hall, London, 1968; xi+498 pages, 203 illustrations; price: £ 5/5.

Not too many years ago, the man who worked in the field of ultrahigh vacuum (P < 10- 9 tort) WaS regarded as a marvelous combination of artist and tinkerer. As experiment techniques have improved, the achievement of such vacuum and the measuremental of the pressures involved have become routine. Simulta- neously has grown the awareness that in this very low pressure range we are deal- ing with fundamental chemical and physical processes of enormous complexity. The Physical Basis of Ultrahigh Vacuum, the latest of the Chapman and Hall High Vacuum Series, is devoted to a scholarly consideration of some of the funda- mental processes underlying the production, measurement, and utilization of ultra- high vacuum. The authors, P. A. Redhead, J. P. Hobson and E. V. Kornelsen, are members of the distinguished research group in the Radio and Electrical Engineering Division of the National Research Council at Ottawa, Canada, which has made so many original contributions in the UHV region. They have divided the text into three sections: Physical processes, Pressure measurement, and Pro- duction of ultrahigh vacuum. As might be expected, the section on Pressure meas- urement is really excellent. In each section the rationale has been to present some of the background material and to give the most important references so that the reader can go as deeply into any subject as he may desire. As is the case with any such books, those interested in a particular area may wish that a more intensive treatment had been given of their own subject. However, almost any of the topics might well serve as the basis of a volume at least as large as the present one. The value of this book is that it lays the foundation for further work in so many areas of importance, and for that reason it may very well become a classic in its field. With the increasing importance of ultrahigh vacuum in so many areas of Chemistry, Physics, and the Biological Sciences, this text will help to satisfy a great need on the part of students and experienced workers alike.

Unwemi~ofLou~ville, Ky. J. A. DILLON, JR.

Thin Solid Films, 3 (1969) 448