This book examines the fundamental properties of nanosystems in the gas phase. Detailed derivations of results illustrate the applicability and limitations of approximations and demonstrate the power of the methods.

Thermal processes are ubiquitous and an understanding of thermal phenomena is essential for a complete description of the physics of nanoparticles, both for the purpose of modeling the dynamics of the particles and for the correct interpretation of experimental data.

The second edition of this book follows the logic of first edition, with an emphasis on presentation of literature results and to guide the reader through derivations. Several topics have been added to the repertoire, notably magnetism, a fuller exposition of aggregation and the related area of nucleation theory. Also a new chapter has been added on the transient hot electron phenomenon.

The book remains focused on the fundamental properties of nanosystems in the gas phase. Each chapter is enriched with additional new exercises and three Appendices provide additional useful material.

Provides a didactical guided tour of many interesting phenomena and properties of free clusters and nanoparticles Explores the limits of the mathematical approximations and demonstrates the power of the statistical physics method Enriched with 125 exercises and over one hundred figures Includes fundamental results, applications, illustrative examples and three useful appendeces

Autorentext

Klavs Hansen is Professor of Physics at Tianjin University. Educated at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, he has held positions in the Denmark, USA, Germany, Finland, and Sweden. His expertise is in statistical and quantum processes in free clusters and large molecules, studied at ion traps and storage rings with multiphoton ionization and fragmentation experiments. He is currently also senior visiting professor at KU Leuven.

Klappentext

Thermal processes are ubiquitous and an understanding of thermal phenomena is essential for a complete description of the physics of nanoparticles, both for the purpose of modeling the dynamics of the particles and for the correct interpretation of experimental data. The second edition of this book follows the logic of first edition, with an emphasis on presentation of literature results and to guide the reader through derivations. Several topics have been added to the repertoire, notably magnetism, a fuller exposition of aggregation and the related area of nucleation theory. Also a new chapter has been added on the transient hot electron phenomenon. The book remains focused on the fundamental properties of nanosystems in the gas phase. Each chapter is enriched with additional new exercises and three Appendices provide additional useful material.

Inhalt

Introduction.- The relation between classical and quantum statistics.- Microcanonical temperature.- Thermal properties of vibrations.- Rate constants for emission of atoms and electrons.- Radiation.- The evaporative ensemble.- Abundance distributions; large scale features.- Molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations.- Thermal excitation of valence electrons.- Hot Electron Reactions.- He droplets.- Phase Transitions.- A Additional reading.- B Constants of nature and conversion factors.- C Mathematical help.- Index.