Product Description
This book focuses on the remarkable recent advances in understanding low pressure radio frequency glow discharges.It explains the basic analytical theory, plasma physics, and plasma diagnostics, before proceeding to the details of the etching process. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

ECR Plasma Etching
One of the only books available that contain theoretical and practicle information on ECR etching. A must for any etch engineers working in the semiconductor industry.

understanding plasma processes
Gives a detailed physical understanding on the fundamentals of plasma processes including Inductively Coupled Plasma and current advancements in etching processes. ... Read more

Product Description
This thoroughly revised textbook is a basic introduction toplasma phenomena in solar and stellar coronae emphasizing non-MHDaspects. The natural way in which the author unifies observations andtheory gives a wide perspective to the subject. An important featureis the lucidly written presentation of the fundamentals of plasmaphysics. The basic theory thus developed is then extended to someexemplary and important observations of coronal dynamics, such ascoronal currents, particle acceleration, propagation of particlebeams, and shocks. The book has grown from teaching introductory courses on plasmaastrophysics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). Itaddresses advanced undergraduates and first-year graduate studentswithout a background in plasma physics. It will also be of interest tomore senior research workers involved in coronal physics of the Sunand other stars, solar/stellar winds, and various other fields ofplasma astrophysics. ... Read more

Product Description

This book deals with a selection of research topics in theoretical physics that have (almost) been proven to be a dead-end or continue at least to be highly controversial. Nevertheless, small but dedicated research communities continue to work on these issues. In a series of essays this book describes their work and struggle as well as the chances of any breakthrough in these areas. It is written as both an entertainment and serious study.

Customer Reviews (2)

Refuting on a high level
In "Lost Causes in and beyond Physics" you will find Streater's assessment of a plethora of subjects. Most of them are physical theories he considers a dead end. But there is also a very enjoyable and cogent exposition of probability and algebra in relation to (quantum)physics. This makes up the first third of the book and servers as a basis for the later discussion of hidden variables and Bohmian mechanics. On the last pages Streater writes about some theories he considers worth researching.

Being a physics student myself I found the introduction to probability most fascinating. As the author noted this is a badly thaught subject to physicists. The first part of the book is coherently written and is apart from the omitted proofs more or less like a textbook. If you know quantum mechanics and the typical undergraduate math it will give you the bigger picture. The second part consists of short essays on the lost causes, which I found quite demanding. It is also lacking the coherent structure of the first part. This might be because the essays are compiled from the author's website. If you are into mathematical physics the last few pages might give you some insight into worthwhile research but lacking the expertise I can't comment on this.

"Lost causes in and beyond Physics" shows how careful one has to be in science to avoid error. If you are a physicist it will add to your toolkit on how to construct valid models of reality.

SPURIOUS CLAIMS OF R.F. STREATER

First, I wish to thank R.F. Streater for keeping my book "Physics from Fisher Information" (PFI) in the public eye. The worst fate for any new theory is to be ignored. Streater may well be competent working within the framework of generally accepted, textbook physics. However, his book, and Sec. 5.2 in particular criticizing PFI, indicates that he is behind the times when it comes to understanding new physics. For example, PFI emphasizes the fundamental role that information plays at the foundations of physics. Streater evidently dislikes the idea, and chooses to attack it, even despite its many published successes over the past 20 years. His attack often consists of a misinterpretation of the approach, substituting for it statements that are textbook correct but irrelevent. This gives a paraphrase of the theory that (the desired end) constitutes circuitous reasoning. For example, he claims that the approach in PFI necessarily has to assume quantum mechanics in order to derive it. But Streater's manifest ignorance of the very book he is critiquing easily negates this argument (as below). Note that space limitations permit considering just one of his arguments. I'll gladly email to any reader a response to all of them. Also, readers who do not have a copy of PFI can find a paper [1] that succinctly covers the material.

"The author tentatively identifies I with the kinetic energy, and J with the potential energy"

Rebuttal. Even with the qualifier "tentatively," this statement is wrong. First, regarding Fisher information I: Streater appears to have gotten as far into the book as pgs. 13-14, where that section explicitly expresses I as a *mean* (not instantaneous) KE as he is implying. Moreover, as clearly stated there, this was a hypothesis of the old variational approach [2] of 1989, not of PFI. In fact the approach developed in PFI -- that of Extreme physical information or EPI -- does not generally 'identify' I with the KE. (Rather, it is an upper bound (2.19) to the Fisher information.) Indeed generally identifying I with the KE is ruled out by the derivation in Chap. 4 of relativistic quantum mechanics. At Eqs. (4.12),(4.13) I is derived as the mean (not instantaneous) *difference* between the squared total energy E² and the KE.

Next, regarding Fisher information J: Functional J is the source information (called 'bound' in this edition of PFI). To the contrary, J is not generally 'identified with' the potential energy in PFI. The role of J is to describe the information source for the particular problem, which varies from one to the next. For example, in a later, 2nd edition of PFI titled "Science from Fisher Information," when deriving Newton's 2nd law in Sec. D.2 it is the potential. Finally, the basic Fourier relation (4.4) that the derivation assumed to connect position and momentum spaces has recently been derived [3], again using EPI.

[1] B.R. Frieden and B.H. Soffer, "Lagrangians of physics and the game of Fisher-information transfer," Phys. Rev. E 52, 2274-2286 (1995)
[2] B.R. Frieden, "Fisher information as the basis for the Schrodinger wave equation," Am. J. Physics 57, 1004-1008 (1989)
[3] B.R. Frieden and B.H. Soffer, "de Broglie's wave hypothesis from Fisher information," Physica A 388, 1315-1330 (2009) ... Read more

Product Description
This book focuses on the characteristics of optical radiation, or a spectrum, emitted by various plasmas.In plasma, the same atomic species can produce quite different spectra, or colors depending on the nature of the plasma.This book gives a theoretical framework, by which a particular spectrum can be interpreted correctly and coherently.The uniqueness of the book lies in its comprehensive treatment of the intensity distribution of spectral lines and the population density distribution among the atomic levels, in plasma.It is intended to provide beginners with a good perspective of the field, laying out the physics in an extremely clear manner, starting from an elementary level.A very useful feature of the book is the asterisked sections and chapters which can be skipped by readers, who only wish to gain a quick and basic introduction to plasma spectroscopy. It will also be very useful to researchers working actively in the field, acting as a guide for carrying out experiments and interpreting experimental observations. ... Read more

Product Description
The field of atomic physics in hot plasmas, also called hot plasma spectroscopy, covers the properties and behavior of atoms and ions in hot plasmas, the related emission and absorption spectra, and the applications of the emitted radiation. This book is the first comprehensive treatise on the topic in 25 years. ... Read more

Product Description
A unified and systematic treatment of the main results and techniques of relativistic fluid dynamics with an emphasis on waves and shock waves. The first four chapters provide an introduction to the fundamental principles of relativistic fluid dynamics and magneto-fluids.The remaining chapters present specific topics, including non-linear electromagnetic waves in relativistic cold plasmas, relativistic asymptotic waves, and relativistic shock waves.Examples of the applications of the theory to plasma physics, nuclear physics and astrophysics are presented. ... Read more

Product Description

This unusual book considers physical principles, starting from the most general ones, and simplifies assumptions, helping students answer two key questions: what approximation is the simplest, but still sufficient for the description of a phenomenon in cosmic plasmas, and how to build an adequate model.

Product Description
This is an extensive revision of a successful and innovative introductory text for students of college and university physics. Like the first edition, this revision concentrates on the physics that answers the question: Why do we believe in atoms and their properties?While providing a sound introduction to basic physical concepts, it emphasizes nineteenth- and twentieth-century physics that has led to our modern picture of the atom. The revision also has two new chapters that explore, in the context of real experiments, important ideas of quantum mechanics - including disturbing consequences of superposition such as entanglement, non-locality, and the violation of Bell’s inequalities. The book begins with a review of Newtonian mechanics. It then looks at physical evidence that chemical compounds are made of atoms and shows how basic mechanics and a simple hard-sphere model of atoms explain pressure, temperature, viscosity, and the ideal gas laws, and yield the first determination of the size of an atom. Three chapters of basic electricity and magnetism provide tools used to reveal the electrical nature of atoms, to discover the electron, and to identify it as an important part of all atoms. A description of waves and their properties - particularly interference - provides background for chapters describing how the interactions of light, x-rays, and electrons with crystalline matter and with atoms reveal internal structure. After two chapters unfold the discovery of the particle nature of light and the wave behavior of electrons, the puzzle of wave-particle duality emerges. A chapter on radioactivity, transmutation, the discovery of the nucleus, isotopes, and the neutron and a chapter on Bohr’s model of the hydrogen atom and Moseley’s identification of the atomic number establish the nuclear model of the atom. The final chapters show how the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and Feynman’s rules of quantum superposition resolve the issues of wave-particle duality at the cost of some uncomfortably unintuitive ideas. These and experiments that confirm them are described in detail.To help students make a good transition from high-school physics to university physics, this book fosters quantitative skills: There is much use of order-of-magnitude calculations, scaling arguments, proportionalities, approximations, and other basic tools of quantitative reasoning, progressing from simple and direct in the early parts of the book to more elaborate later. There is also a strong effort to show how new physics and new ideas are inferred from experimental data and quantitative reasoning. The book has a large number of problems to help students clarify their understanding. The spreadsheet problems have been updated, and new problems have been added to many chapters. Like most of the problems in the first edition, the new ones are original creations for this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Alfven waves permeate the universe. They have been observed in the Sun, in the magnetosphere, as low frequency fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field, and they are easily generated in laboratory plasmas. Alfven waves serve as a useful diagnostic tool to probe plasma conditions in both space and laboratory plasmas. In the quest for nuclear fusion they have been used with spectacular success to heat tokamak plasmas to temperatures exceeding 50 million Kelvin. This book aims to provide an introduction to the physics of Alfven wave propagation for postgraduate physicists and astrophysicists who are entering research on laboratory or space plasmas. In the early chapters the basic properties of Alfven waves are derived for homogeneous plasmas, using the ideal magnetohydrodynamic fluid equations. The essential differences between torsional and compressional wave types are highlighted by an examination of phase and group velocity surfaces, and by a discussion of recent experimental results obtained with small, 'point-source', antennae. Later chapters deal with cylindrical plasmas, Alfven waves in a plasma with two or more ion species, effects of plasma current, resistive damping and inhomogeneous plasmas. There are also two chapters about numerical and experimental techniques, topics which are often neglected in other books. ... Read more

Product Description
This textbook deals with the requirements of space physics. The first part starts with a description of the Earth's plasma environment, followed by a derivation of single particle motions in electromagnetic fields, with applications to the Earth's magnetosphere. Then the origin and effects of collisions and conductivities, formation of the ionosphere, magnetospheric convection and dynamics, and solar wind-magnetosphere coupling are discussed.

The second part of the book presents a more theoretical foundation of plasma physics, starting from kinetic theory. Introducing moments of the distribution function permits derivation of the fluid equations, followed by an analysis of fluid boundaries, with the Earth's magnetopause and bow shock as examples. Finally, fluid and kinetic theory are applied to derive the relevant wave modes in a plasma.

A representative selection of the many space plasma instabilities and relevant aspects of nonlinear theory is given in a companion textbook, Advanced Space Plasma Physics, by the same authors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not a bad introductory book
Quite useful tool for students intending to go on in the area of space plasmas, but it is also good reference book for those working in the area, when they need to recall some basic information. However, some parts couldbe treated in more detail, and some parts are not explained in the bestway. And main problem is that some parts should be in different order, thenin third or fourth chapter would need to be coments like: "We willshow it later in the fifth chapter". This might be not a problem for aresearcher in the area who uses the book as a reference tool, however,students who are new in the area, be aware. Overall, it is quiteinteresting reading. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on a project backed by the European Union, this is a must-have resource for researchers in industry and academia concerned with application-oriented plasma technology research. Clearly divided in three sections, the first part is dedicated to the fundamentals of plasma and offers information about scientific and theoretical plasma topics, plasma production, surface treatment process and characterization. The second section focuses on technological aspects and plasma process applications in textile, food packaging and biomedical sectors, while the final part is devoted to concerns about the environmental sustainability of plasma processes. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Nuclear fusion has the potential to become the most important energy source of the new century. But still many problems, as e.g. the confinement of the plasma, are not yet solved. Thus they are subject to intense research which drives a rapid evolvement of this field of nuclear physics, and generates the need for an up-to-date textbook for graduate students.
This state-of-the-art textbook assembles the material for a modern course, and is aimed at graduate and advanced undergraduate students. It both introduces the fundamental principles and theories of fusion plasma physics, and presents the most recent topics from various sources in a systematic and concise way. Each chapter is rounded off with a set of exercises.
... Read more

Product Description
The aim of this book is to elucidate a number of basic topics in physics of dense plasmas interfacing with condensed matter physics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, and astrophysics. The different plasmas examined here include astrophysical dense plasmas, like those found in the interiors, surfaces, and outer envelopes of such astronomical objects as neutron stars, white dwarfs, the Sun, brown dwarfs, and giant planets. Condensed plasmas in laboratory settings cover metals and alloys (solid, amorphous, liquid, and compressed), semiconductors (electrons, holes, and their droplets), and various realizations of dense plasmas (shock-compressed, diamond-anvil cell, metal vaporization, pinch discharges, and so on.)

Statistical Plasma Physics, Volume II: Condensed Plasmas is intended as a graduate-level textbook on the subjects of condensed plasma physics, material sciences, and condensed-matter astrophysics. It will also be useful to researchers in the fields of plasma physics, condensed-matter physics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, and astrophysics. ... Read more

Product Description
There has been considerable interest in recent years in finding methods to efficiently generate large volumes of atmospheric pressure air plasmas at modest temperatures below 2000 K with electron number densities of the order of 1013 cm-3. These reactive air plasmas have numerous applications based on their medical, biological, environmental, electromagnetic, and aerodynamic effects. There is considerable industrial interest in air plasmas for the benefits it can offer to existing and potential new processes as they do not require a vacuum enclosure and or additional feed gases.

This book reviews recent advances in the generation and maintenance of atmospheric-pressure plasmas with a special emphasis on plasmas in ambient air and their applications. The book provides a state-of-the-art summary of methods to generate and sustain atmospheric-pressure plasmas in air, diagnose and characterize the plasmas in terms of electron temperature, electron energy distribution functions, electron density, neutral and ion temperatures and energy distribution functions, elucidate the electron kinetics and the key plasma chemical reaction processes in these plasmas, highlight the latest development in modeling and simulation, and point to the most promising current and future technological applications of atmospheric-pressure air plasmas.

The book will cover results of work that has been in the forefront of research and development in the United States and elsewhere over the last few years, and will be critical reading for graduate students and researchers in industry and academia. Furthermore, since this is a technical field of international interest, it is anticipated that there will be a significant international audience for this book, particularly in Europe, Japan, and Korea. ... Read more

Product Description
This problems supplement to plasma physics textbooks covers plasma theory for both science and technology.
Written by a renowned plasma scientist, experienced book author and skilled teacher, it treats all aspects of plasma theory in no fewer than 520 very detailed worked-out problems. With this systematic collection the reader will gain a sound understanding of plasma physics in all fields, from fusion and astrophysics to surface treatment. The book also includes the transport of particles as well as radiation in plasmas, and while designed for graduate students and young researchers, it can equally serve as a reference. ... Read more

Product Description

This book provides a long-needed survey of new results. Especially welcome is a new summary of the measured and calculated sputtering yields with an algebraic approximation formula for the energy and angular dependence of the yields, which is useful for researchers who need sputtering yields for physics research or applied problems. The book offers a critical review of computational methods for calculating sputtering yields and also includes molecular dynamics calculations.