We report a physical mechanism responsible for initiating a vacuum breakdown process of a single carbon nanotube (CNT) during field emission. A quasidynamic method has been developed to simulate the breakdown process and calculate the critical field, critical emission current density and critical temperature beyond which thermal runaway occurs before the CNT temperature reaches its melting point. This model is in good agreement with experiments carried out with a single CNT on a silicon microtip.

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The position of gallium atoms on a silicon (111)surface has been completely determined using the tunneling microscope and x-ray standing-wave methods. The (&3X&3)R30' electron diffraction pattern observed with -, '-monolayer coverages is shown to result from a simple adatom gallium lat-0

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