National Physical Laboratory

About: National Physical Laboratory is a facility organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Dielectric & Thin film. The organization has 7615 authors who have published 13327 publications receiving 319381 citations.

The quantitative analysis of surfaces by XPS: A review

Abstract: A general framework is presented for the quantitative analysis of surfaces by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS or ESCA). The approach starts by considering analysis using reference data recorded on the same instrument and under identical conditions as the analysed sample. Matrix factors are evaluated and the quantification for adsorbed layers and sputter profiles discussed. More popularly reference data are not recorded each time but are taken from the published literature. In this case the angular anisotropy term and analyser transmission functions need to be known. These are discussed and the analyser transfer functions of commercial spectrometers are presented in detail. Nine published reference data sets are assessed to test their correlation with the theoretical predictions. Theree sets are found to give moderate agreement but agree more closely with each other in their divergence from the theory for particular elements. This divergence enables a peak intensity factor to be defined which quantifies the intensity lost from a peak due to shake-up events, etc. With this factor and the analyser transfer functions quantification can be made to an accuracy of 10% in all instruments from a single reference data set.

Geodesy and metrology with a transportable optical clock

Abstract: Optical atomic clocks, due to their unprecedented stability and uncertainty, are already being used to test physical theories and herald a revision of the International System of Units. However, to unlock their potential for cross-disciplinary applications such as relativistic geodesy, a major challenge remains: their transformation from highly specialized instruments restricted to national metrology laboratories into flexible devices deployable in different locations. Here, we report the first field measurement campaign with a transportable $^{87}$Sr optical lattice clock. We use it to determine the gravity potential difference between the middle of a mountain and a location 90 km away, exploiting both local and remote clock comparisons to eliminate potential clock errors. A local comparison with a $^{171}$Yb lattice clock also serves as an important check on the international consistency of independently developed optical clocks. This campaign demonstrates the exciting prospects for transportable optical clocks.

The asymptotic expansion of bessel functions of large order

Abstract: New expansions are obtained for the functions Iv{yz), ) and their derivatives in terms of elementary functions, and for the functions J v(vz), Yv{vz), H fvz) and their derivatives in terms of Airy functions, which are uniformly valid with respect to z when | | is large. New series for the zeros and associated values are derived by reversion and used to determine the distribution of the zeros of functions of large order in the z-plane. Particular attention is paid to the complex zeros of 7„(z) and the Hankel functions when the order n is an integer or half an odd integer, and for this purpose some new asymptotic expansions of the Airy functions are derived. Tables are given of complex zeros of Airy functions and other quantities which facilitate the rapid calculation of the smaller complex zeros of 7„(z), 79(z), and the Hankel functions and their derivatives, when 2 n is an integer, to an accuracy of three or four significant figures.