Temperature dependence of diffracted-beam intensities in atom-surface scattering. Annual technical report

Technical Report · Fri Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5515199

Jackson, B; Metiu, H

We develop a new method for the calculation of the atom scattering analog of the Debye-Waller factor. Unlike x-ray and neutron scattering, the properties of an atom scattered by a solid surface cannot be computer by perturbation theory, therefore the simple Debye-Waller theory cannot be applied. Nevertheless the Debye-Waller phenomenon has a close analog: the elastic intensity is depressed due to the uncorrelated part of the thermal motion of the lattice atoms. To compute this effect we develop a time dependent scattering theory in which the quantum properties of the scattered atom are described by propagating coherently an ensemble of wave packets and lattice motion is simulated by a classical Langevin equation. Applications are made to He and Ne scattering from a surface whose lattice dynamics mimics that of Pt(111) but whose corrugation was slightly increased to enrich the diffraction structure.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Santa Barbara (USA). Dept. of Chemistry
• OSTI ID: 5515199
• Report Number(s): AD-A-152762/1/XAB; TR-16
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640301* -- Atomic
Molecular & Chemical Physics-- Beams & their Reactions
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATOM COLLISIONS
ATOMIC BEAM DIFFRACTION
COHERENT SCATTERING
COLLISIONS
DEBYE-WALLER FACTOR
DIFFRACTION
PERTURBATION THEORY
SCATTERING
SURFACES
TIME DEPENDENCE
WAVE PROPAGATION