title: Competition between electron and phonon excitations in the scattering of nitrogen atoms and molecules off tungsten and silver metal surfaces.
abstract: We investigate the role played by electron-hole pair and phonon excitations in the interaction of reactive gas molecules and atoms with metal surfaces. We present a theoretical framework that allows us to evaluate within a full-dimensional dynamics the combined contribution of both excitation mechanisms while the gas particle-surface interaction is described by an ab initio potential energy surface. The model is applied to study energy dissipation in the scattering of N(2) on W(110) and N on Ag(111). Our results show that phonon excitation is the dominant energy loss channel, whereas electron-hole pair excitations represent a minor contribution. We substantiate that, even when the energy dissipated is quantitatively significant, important aspects of the scattering dynamics are well captured by the adiabatic approximation.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Física de Materiales CFM/MPC (CSIC-UPV/EHU), San Sebastián, Spain.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martin-Gondre
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alducin
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Bocan
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Díez Muiño
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Juaristi