November 28, 2005 When non-specialists think of sapphire, they
imagine a shimmering blue semi-precious stone - used, for
example, as the needle on a record player. For scientists,
however, the sapphire is also a particular form of aluminium
oxide (α-Al203, also: corundum). A very stabile aluminium oxide,
sapphire is used in many fields of technology. In semiconductor
technology, for example, it insulates electronic components. In
this and many other technological processes (e.g.,
solidification, crystal growing, and lubrication), the
production process is being optimised and carried out at
increasingly smaller dimensions. Therefore it is important to
know what interactions take place at an atomic level, at the
interface between solid and liquid materials. The interest in
basic research into the structure and phenomena at solid-liquid
interfaces has grown ever since x-ray diffraction studies, and
atomic computer simulations, showed a high concentration of
density fluctuations in the liquid phase at the interfa