Table of Contents

1. The Role of Molecular Beams in the 20th Century.- 1.1 Historical Development.- 1.2 Main Applications of Molecular Beams.- 1.3 Thermal Energy Molecular Beam Applications in other Fields.- 1.4 Fast Beam Applications.- 1.5 Examples of Molecular Beam Machines.- 2. Fundamentals of Kinetic Gas Theory.- 2.1 Ideal Gases in Thermodynamic Equilibrium.- 2.1.1 The Maxwellian Velocity Distribution.- 2.2 Quantum Statistics.- 2.3 Molecular Flow Through an Ideal Aperture.- 2.4 Molecular Flow Through Channels.- 3. Fundamental Principles of Gas Dynamics.- 3.1 Some Fundamentals of Thermodynamics.- 3.2 Governing Equations of Steady Flow.- 3.3 One-Dimensional Flow.- 3.4 Two-Dimensional Flow.- 3.5 Free-Jet Expansion.- 3.6 The Transition to Nonequilibrium Conditions.- 3.7 Internal Energy Relaxation.- 3.8 Binary Gas Mixtures.- 3.9 Condensation and Cluster Formation.- 4. Thermal Energy Molecular Beam Sources.- 4.1 Experimental Requirements.- 4.2 Gas Sources (4–600 K).- 4.3 Ovens for Gases and Solids.- 4.4 Laser Ablation.- 4.5 Sputtering Sources.- 4.6 Recirculating Sources and Sources for Special Applications.- 4.7 Sources for Beams of Radicals.- 4.8 Production of Metastable Particles.- 4.9 Rydberg Atoms.- 4.10 Pulsed Beam Sources.- 4.11 Sources of Slow and Cold Atoms.- 5. Detection Methods.- 5.1 Accumulation Detectors.- 5.2 Momentum Detectors.- 5.3 Special Vacuum Gauges.- 5.4 Surface Ionization (Langmuir—Taylor Detector).- 5.5 Field Ionization.- 5.6 Universal Molecular Beam Detector.- 5.7 Thermal Detectors.- 5.8 Detection of Metastable Particles.- 5.9 Spectroscopic Detection Methods.- References.