1/t pressure and fermion behaviour of water in two dimensions.

A variety of metal vacuum systems display the celebrated 1/t pressure, namely power-law dependence on time t, with the exponent close to unity, the origin of which has been a long-standing controversy. Here we propose a chemisorption model for water adsorbates, based on the argument for fermion behaviour of water vapour adsorbed on a stainless-steel surface, and obtain analytically the power-law behaviour of pressure, with an exponent of unity. Further, the model predicts that the pressure should depend on the temperature T according to T(3/2), which is indeed confirmed by our experiment. Our results should help elucidate the unique characteristics of the adsorbed water.

Selective catalytic burning of graphene by SiOx layer depletion.

We report catalytic decomposition of few-layer graphene on an Au/SiOx/Si surface wherein oxygen is supplied by dissociation of the native SiOx layer at a relatively low temperature of 400 °C. The detailed chemical evolution of the graphene covered SiOx/Si surface with and without gold during the catalytic process is investigated using a spatially resolved photoelectron emission method. The oxygen atoms from the native SiOx layer activate the gold-mediated catalytic decomposition of the entire graphene layer, resulting in the formation of direct contact between the Au and the Si substrate. The notably low contact resistivity found in this system suggests that the catalytic depletion of a SiOx layer could realize a new way to micromanufacture high-quality electrical contact.