Effect of the band structure on charge exchange during atom-surface collisions.

Abstract

Within the framework of the time-dependent Anderson-Newns model, charge exchange between an atomic particle and a surface with arbitrary band spectrum during scattering is examined. The charge state of the scattered particle is shown to be, in general, an oscillating function of its energy. Such behavior is a consequence of interference effects arising from band finiteness and from the complex structure of electronic states, which develops when an atomic particle interacts with a surface. The possibility of a substantially nonexponential law of atomic-state decay is demonstrated. The results obtained are found to give the account for known experimental dependencies.