The absence of contamination of mercury from a stainless steel molecular beam epitaxy mercury source

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Abstract
The use of stainless steel in the construction of a molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) Hg source has been the subject of concern because of the possibility that Hg could dissolve the stainless steel constituents which would contaminate the growing epilayer. Because of this concern, quartz has been touted to be the material of choice for constructing an MBE Hg source. However, quartz fabrication is difficult and costly, and the final product is susceptible to fracture. We show, by inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy and neutron activation measurements, that the detectable (<0.1 ppm) trace metal content of Hg contained in our heated, stainless steel Hg source is no different from the highest purity Hg commercially available. This significant result indicates that stainless steel is a suitable, noncontaminating material for the construction of an MBE Hg source.

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