Trapping probabilities of H 2 and D 2 molecules in compact metallic surfaces by electron-hole pair interaction

Abstract

We show that electron-hole pair interactions give values of the trapping probability into precursor states of H 2 and D 2 in compact metallic surfaces of ∼10 -3-10 -4 depending on the incident kinetic energy. These values are too small as compared with the ones obtained from phonon exchange processes (≲0.2). We conclude that interchange-of-energy processes of light non-dissociative molecules in surfaces (quantum mechanical systems) are dominated by phonon-molecule interactions; in dissociative processes, however, electron-hole pairs can be expected to play an important role.