Semiclassical multi-phonon theory for atom-surface scattering: Application to the Cu(111) system

Journal Article · Thu May 07 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Chemical Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4919345· OSTI ID:22415731

Daon, Shauli; Pollak, Eli ^[1]

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1. Chemical Physics Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovoth (Israel)

The semiclassical perturbation theory of Hubbard and Miller [J. Chem. Phys. 80, 5827 (1984)] is further developed to include the full multi-phonon transitions in atom-surface scattering. A practically applicable expression is developed for the angular scattering distribution by utilising a discretized bath of oscillators, instead of the continuum limit. At sufficiently low surface temperature good agreement is found between the present multi-phonon theory and the previous one-, and two-phonon theory derived in the continuum limit in our previous study [Daon, Pollak, and Miret-Artés, J. Chem. Phys. 137, 201103 (2012)]. The theory is applied to the measured angular distributions of Ne, Ar, and Kr scattered from a Cu(111) surface. We find that the present multi-phonon theory substantially improves the agreement between experiment and theory, especially at the higher surface temperatures. This provides evidence for the importance of multi-phonon transitions in determining the angular distribution as the surface temperature is increased.

• OSTI ID: 22415731
• Journal Information: Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Chemical Physics Journal Issue: 17 Vol. 142; ISSN JCPSA6; ISSN 0021-9606
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION
ARGON
ATOMS
COPPER
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
KRYPTON
NEON
OSCILLATORS
PERTURBATION THEORY
PHONONS
SCATTERING
SEMICLASSICAL APPROXIMATION
SURFACES