Description
In 2008, Wiley-VCH published a translation of the ninth edition of the German handbook “Wutz – Handbook of Vacuum Technology,” named after the author of the first edition Max Wutz. This book has been a great success for five deca- des and the object of many requests for a translation. Since its second edition, the “Wutz – Handbook of Vacuum Technology” has become a multi-author book covering the field of vacuum science, vacuum technology, and vacuum techniques comprehensively. Since 2008, the German handbook underwent significant changes and when it could be foreseen that the English edition would run out of print, Wiley-VCH suggested to issue a second English edition “Hand- book of Vacuum Technology,” which is a translation of the 11th German edition of the “Wutz – Handbook of Vacuum Technology,” published by Springer Vieweg. Chapter 17, however, received a new author and was newly written for this second English edition. Compared with the first English edition, also Chap- ters 10 and 12 were written by new authors while improvements were made in most of the other chapters according to the changes in techniques.
Although multi-author, the book aims to be read as a single-author work, a goal to which the present editor who himself has revised almost half of the con- tent has stringently adhered to. The style is as uniform as possible, there are only recurrences where necessary, and the same symbols and notation are used throughout. Hence, the book has taken on textbook character, though it was originally intended to be used as a technical handbook.
The main idea of the book is to cover all aspects of vacuum science and tech- nology in order to enable engineers, technicians, and scientists to develop and work successfully with the equipment and “environment” of vacuum. Beginners in the field of vacuum shall be able to start and experts shall be able to deepen their knowledge and find the necessary information and data to continue their work.
Despite the fact that the applications of vacuum technology are steadily increasing both quantitatively and qualitatively – note, for instance, that the next chip generation will be illuminated under vacuum by extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography – the number of scientists researching and teaching in the field is on a steady decline. Thus, another task for a book like this is to both pre- serve the knowledge of vacuum science and technology and enable self-studying in the field. For this reason, the book may be at times too introductive and sim- ple for experts and sometimes too specialized for beginners. The reader should not be discouraged when experiencing this, but rather choose the information as his/her personal level requires. Short explanations following the title of each chapter describe the contents and may help the reader to choose the right chap- ter for his/her needs.