Inelastic H and D atom scattering from Au(111) as benchmark for theory.

ABSTRACT

Efficient transfer of translational energy to electron-hole pair excitation involving multiple collisions dominates H atom collisions with metal surfaces. For this reason, H atom interaction with metal surfaces cannot be modeled within the commonly used Born-Oppenheimer approximation (BOA). This fact makes H atom scattering from metal surfaces an ideal model system for dynamics that go beyond the BOA. We chose the H/Au(111) system as a model system to obtain a detailed dataset that can serve as a benchmark for theoretical models developed for describing electronically nonadiabatic processes at metal surfaces. Therefore, we investigate the influence of various experimental parameters on the energy loss in detail including isotopic variant, incidence translational energy, incidence polar and azimuthal angles, and outgoing scattering angles.