Inelastic processes on molecule scattering by solid surfaces

Abstract

The final dissociation of a molecule scattered by a solid surface is a result of competition between two processes, namely the collision-induced excitation into a repulsive state and the Penning relaxation along the scattering trajectory. The correlated collision scattering by the surface atomic rows and semichannels should display an orientational effect in the excitation-induced dissociation. This could explain the azimuthai orientational effect in the dissociation of the scattered molecules. This paper reports on the effect of resonance excitation into a repulsive state, which is a version of the Okorokov effect. The inelastic interaction was also shown to influence the excitation degree of the atoms of the dissociated molecule scattered by the surface. The population of their excited states has been calculated.