State and perspectives of development of optical spectral methods for investigation into evaporation of metals

The results of the application of the optical spectral method for investigating evaporation and for measuring the pressure of saturated vapour of pure metals, alloys, and semiconductors are generalized on the basis of publications for the period of 1951-1976 and the author's own investigations. Attention is focussed on the atomic-absorption method. The static, quasistatic, and kinetic versions of vapour pressure measurement, and also the merits and demerits of each version, are considered; the optimum fields of their application are determined