| This thesis presents, in three parts, topics dealing with the low temperature electro-magnetic surface properties of metals and ceramics. Part I discusses the development and operation of an apparatus to spatially resolve metallic surface potentials as a function of temperature between 2.8K and room temperature. This experiment operates under UHV conditions with a voltage resolution of 1 millivolt and a spatial resolution of 1200 microns. We use this equipment to search for temperature dependent changes in spatial fluctuations of the surface potential.; A screening of these fluctuations by a surface conducting layer is suggested by the experiments of Lockhart, Witteborn, and Fairbank, who reported temperature dependent shielding of random electric fields inside a copper tube. Sharp changes with temperature in the microwave surface conductivity of copper and aluminum have also been reported. We have found some aluminum samples to be contaminated with sufficient tin to explain recent microwave results as superconducting impurity transitions. For copper, where both increased and decreased conductivities have been reported, we explain increasing conductivity results in the same way. The present experiment measures surface potential directly, but shows no evidence of temperature dependent shielding.; Part II of this thesis presents a calculation of random fields outside a metal surface and their effect on TOF spectroscopy. We calculate the statistical properties of the fields in one-dimensional and cylindrical geometries, then use these results to investigate TOF effects. Calculated quantities include the autocovariance function of the potential, the rms electric field, corrections to the free particle time of flight, and the mean minimum energy required to transit the random potential. The results compare well with our numerical simulations, and with the available experimental data.; In part III we investigate the 9.12 GHz complex surface impedance of bulk and thin film samples of the 90 K superconductor Yttrium-Barium-Copper-Oxide. We find substantial low temperature residual absorption, which we associate with sample quality. We also observe structure in the temperature dependence of the surface impedance. The behaviour of this structure in static magnetic fields is characteristic of granular superconductivity, in agreement with the accepted microstructure of these materials. |
