AVS 45th International Symposium
    Surface Science Division Wednesday Sessions
       Session SS2-WeM

Invited Paper SS2-WeM3
A Comparison of State-Resolved Studies of Reaction and Inelastic Scattering for H@sub 2@ with Palladium and Copper Surfaces

Wednesday, November 4, 1998, 9:00 am, Room 309

Session: Gas-Surface Dynamics
Presenter: G.O. Sitz, University of Texas, Austin
Authors: E. Watts, University of Texas, Austin
M. Gostein, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
G.O. Sitz, University of Texas, Austin
Correspondent: Click to Email
We report results of molecular beam experiments of hydrogen scattering from single crystal palladium and copper surfaces. These two materials represent a reactive and unreactive substrate, respectively, for hydrogen dissociation at low (50-70 meV) incident energy. Because the reaction has strong geometrical and dynamical requirements, features of the potential energy surface are evidenced in the inelastic scattering of those molecules which do not react. This will be demonstrated by comparing scattering distributions for the two surfaces. In addition we have observed efficient loss of initially vibrationally excited H@sub 2@, and have measured the probability that this loss occurs via relaxation into the ground vibrational state for selected final rotation states. For scattering from Pd, an energy balance for the H@sub 2@ degrees-of-freedom indicates that a substantial amount of energy is lost to the surface during the relaxation.