AVS INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 2026

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Frequently asked

Glossary

1

UHV (ultra-high vacuum)

A vacuum regime below roughly 10^-9 mbar where a surface stays clean long enough for surface science, MBE, or sensitive thin-film work. Reaching it needs all-metal chambers, bake-out, and low-outgassing materials.

2

HV (high vacuum)

The intermediate regime, broadly 10^-3 to 10^-9 mbar, used in sputtering, evaporation, electron microscopy, and most process equipment.

3

PVD (physical vapour deposition)

Coating by condensing a vaporised solid onto a substrate - for example magnetron sputtering or thermal and electron-beam evaporation - as opposed to chemical vapour routes.

4

ALD (atomic layer deposition)

A cyclic chemical technique that deposits one near-monolayer per cycle by alternating self-limiting precursor and reactant pulses, giving extreme thickness control and conformality on 3D structures.

5

MBE (molecular beam epitaxy)

UHV growth of crystalline layers from directed beams of atoms or molecules, with in-situ reflection electron diffraction used to monitor layer-by-layer growth.

6

XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy)

A surface analysis method that measures core-level electron binding energies to identify elemental composition and chemical state in the top few nanometres of a sample.

7

SIMS (secondary ion mass spectrometry)

Depth profiling and trace-analysis technique that sputters a surface with a primary ion beam and mass-analyses the ejected secondary ions.

8

RGA (residual gas analyser)

A small quadrupole mass spectrometer mounted on a vacuum system to identify the residual gas species, commonly used for leak detection, bake-out monitoring, and contamination troubleshooting.

9

Turbo and cryo pumps

Turbomolecular pumps move gas mechanically at high rotational speed, while cryopumps capture gas on cold surfaces; both are common high-vacuum and UHV workhorses above a dry roughing pump.

10

Load lock

A small intermediate chamber that lets samples or wafers pass between atmosphere and a process or analysis chamber without venting the main vacuum, protecting base pressure and uptime.

11

Outgassing and bake-out

Outgassing is the release of adsorbed water, hydrogen, and solvents from chamber surfaces; bake-out heats the system under vacuum to drive those species off and reach lower base pressure.

12

Plasma etch and plasma diagnostics

Etch removes material using reactive ions and radicals from a plasma, while diagnostics such as Langmuir probes, optical emission spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry monitor the discharge.

13

Thin film

A layer from a fraction of a nanometre to a few micrometres thick whose electrical, optical, mechanical, or chemical behaviour drives the device or coating being built.

14

In-situ characterisation

Measurement performed inside the deposition or vacuum environment during growth or processing, avoiding air exposure that would alter the surface being studied.

15

Short course

A focused half-day or one-day teaching session on a specific technique or theory topic that AVS-style symposia traditionally run alongside the technical programme; check the current year listing on avs.org.