Dynamical Steering and Electronic Excitation in NO Scattering from a Gold Surface

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 326; no. 5954; pp. 829 - 832
• Main Authors: Shenvi, Neil, Roy, Sharani, Tully, John C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 06.11.2009; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Atoms; Chemistry; Electron emission; Electrons; Energy; Energy transfer; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Gold; Molecular rotation; Molecules; Nitric oxide; Scattering; Solid-gas interface; Steering; Surface physical chemistry; Trajectories; Vibrational states; Motion; Gold; Molecular orientation; Separation; Force; Nitric oxide; Prediction; Vibrational energy; Transition metal; Crystal face; Energy transfer; Mechanism
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1179240

Nonadiabatic coupling of nuclear motion to electronic excitations at metal surfaces is believed to influence a host of important chemical processes and has generated a great deal of experimental and theoretical interest. We applied a recently developed theoretical framework to examine the nature and importance of nonadiabatic behavior in a system that has been extensively studied experimentally: the scattering of vibrationally excited nitric oxide molecules from a Au(111) surface. We conclude that the nonadiabatic transition rate depends strongly on both the N-O internuclear separation and the molecular orientation and, furthermore, that molecule-surface forces can steer the molecule into strong-coupling configurations. This mechanism elucidates key features of the experiments and provides several testable predictions regarding the dependence of vibrational energy transfer on the initial vibrational energy, molecular orientation, and incident angle.