title: A novel gas-vacuum interface for environmental molecular beam studies.
abstract: Molecular beam techniques are commonly used to obtain detailed information about reaction dynamics and kinetics of gas-surface interactions. These experiments are traditionally performed in vacuum and the dynamic state of surfaces under ambient conditions is thereby excluded from detailed studies. Herein we describe the development and demonstration of a new vacuum-gas interface that increases the accessible pressure range in environmental molecular beam (EMB) experiments. The interface consists of a grating close to a macroscopically flat surface, which allows for experiments at pressures above 1 Pa including angularly resolved measurements of the emitted flux. The technique is successfully demonstrated using key molecular beam experiments including elastic helium and inelastic water scattering from graphite, helium and light scattering from condensed adlayers, and water interactions with a liquid 1-butanol surface. The method is concluded to extend the pressure range and flexibility in EMB studies with implications for investigations of high pressure interface phenomena in diverse fields including catalysis, nanotechnology, environmental science, and life science. Potential further improvements of the technique are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Atmospheric Science, University of Gothenburg, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sofia M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Atmospheric Science, University of Gothenburg, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Xiangrui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Atmospheric Science, University of Gothenburg, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Panos
authors.identifier: 0000000288752770
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Papagiannakopoulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Atmospheric Science, University of Gothenburg, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Erik S
authors.identifier: 0000000324287539
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Atmospheric Science, University of Gothenburg, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jan B C
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Pettersson