Electron-hole pair excitation determines the mechanism of hydrogen atom adsorption
2015 | journal article; research paper. A publication with affiliation to the University of Göttingen.
Jump to: Cite & Linked | Documents & Media | Details | Version history
Cite this publication
Electron-hole pair excitation determines the mechanism of hydrogen atom adsorption
Buenermann, O. ; Jiang, H.; Dorenkamp, Y.; Kandratsenka, A.; Janke, S. M.; Auerbach, D. J. & Wodtke, A. M. (2015)
Science, 350(6266) pp. 1346-1349. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad4972
Documents & Media
Details
- Authors
- Buenermann, Oliver ; Jiang, Hongyan; Dorenkamp, Yvonne; Kandratsenka, Alexander; Janke, Svenja M.; Auerbach, Daniel J.; Wodtke, Alec Michael
- Abstract
- How much translational energy atoms and molecules lose in collisions at surfaces determines whether they adsorb or scatter. The fact that hydrogen (H) atoms stick to metal surfaces poses a basic question. Momentum and energy conservation demands that the light H atom cannot efficiently transfer its energy to the heavier atoms of the solid in a binary collision. How then do H atoms efficiently stick to metal surfaces? We show through experiments that H-atom collisions at an insulating surface (an adsorbed xenon layer on a gold single-crystal surface) are indeed nearly elastic, following the predictions of energy and momentum conservation. In contrast, H-atom collisions with the bare gold surface exhibit a large loss of translational energy that can be reproduced by an atomic-level simulation describing electron-hole pair excitation.
- Issue Date
- 2015
- Journal
- Science
- Project
- SFB 1073: Kontrolle von Energiewandlung auf atomaren Skalen
SFB 1073 | Topical Area A | A04 Kontrolle von Energiedissipation an Oberflächen mittels einstellbaren Eigenschaften von Grenzflächen - ISSN
- 1095-9203; 0036-8075