ABSTRACT

The surface of solids plays an important role in many processes. In order to understand these processes, one needs to have the knowledge of the surface molecular structures. SPMs provided much useful information as regard to the molecular structures at solid surfaces. The biggest impact of SPMs has been that solid surfaces can be investigated under ambient conditions. Further, because many surface reactions take place under fluids, these experiments could be, for the first time, investigated by SPMs. The molecular picture of solid surfaces has become important knowledge that was poor prior to SPMs. SPMs have also allowed one to study changes in solid surfaces under dynamic conditions at molecular scale. For example, the adsorption of gas molecules on solid surfaces under dynamic conditions has been studied, as described below.