Abstract
Abstract Thermodynamics is applied to the problem of vacuum deposition of a perfect gas as a thin solid film by considering the perfect solid-vacuum interface. It is shown that thermodynamic equilibrium between the thin solid film and its surroundings results from balance between the increase in chemical potential caused by the induction of stress in the film and the decrease in chemical potential caused by the condensation of the gas to a solid. Although the process by which the film obtains thermodynamic equilibrium with its surroundings is obscured in the Gibbs' treatment of interfaces, the treatment presented here is thermodynamically consistent with that of Gibbs. Methods for determining the change in surface tension γ of the solid-vacuum interface when a thin solid film is adsorbed emerge in the treatment presented. Provided the area of the interface is known, the change in γ can be determined from the heat of adsorption, or from the change in volume of the gas from which the film is formed.
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