Surface analytical facility at NPL, New Delhi

The Surface Physics group at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi, has established different surface characterization facilities, viz. Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED), Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS), Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS). The group has been involved in studying the surface and interface of metals and semiconductors to understand the bond formation, surface crystal structure, chemical states, impurity profiles and interfacial diffusion, etc. using the above techniques. In addition, this group is also involved in establishment of vacuum standards down to a pressure of 10-6 Pa. A few such recent case studies have been described briefly in this article.