title: Classical Wigner theory of gas surface scattering.
abstract: The scattering of atoms from surfaces is studied within the classical Wigner formalism. A new analytical expression is derived for the angular distribution and its surface temperature dependence. The expression is valid in the limit of weak coupling between the vertical motion with respect to the surface and the horizontal motion of the atom along the periodic surface. The surface temperature dependence is obtained in the limit of weak coupling between the horizontal atomic motion and the surface phonons. The resulting expression, which takes into account the surface corrugation, leads to an almost symmetric double peaked angular distribution, with peaks at the rainbow angles. The analytic expression agrees with model numerical computations. It provides a good qualitative description for the experimentally measured angular distribution of Ne and Ar scattered from a Cu surface.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Physics Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovoth, Israel. eli.pollak@weizmann.ac.il
authors.forename: Eli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pollak
authors.forename: Santanu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sengupta
authors.forename: Salvador
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miret-Artés