title: Semiclassical multi-phonon theory for atom-surface scattering: Application to the Cu(111) system.
abstract: The semiclassical perturbation theory of Hubbard and Miller [J. Chem. Phys. 80, 5827 (1984)] is further developed to include the full multi-phonon transitions in atom-surface scattering. A practically applicable expression is developed for the angular scattering distribution by utilising a discretized bath of oscillators, instead of the continuum limit. At sufficiently low surface temperature good agreement is found between the present multi-phonon theory and the previous one-, and two-phonon theory derived in the continuum limit in our previous study [Daon, Pollak, and Miret-Artés, J. Chem. Phys. 137, 201103 (2012)]. The theory is applied to the measured angular distributions of Ne, Ar, and Kr scattered from a Cu(111) surface. We find that the present multi-phonon theory substantially improves the agreement between experiment and theory, especially at the higher surface temperatures. This provides evidence for the importance of multi-phonon transitions in determining the angular distribution as the surface temperature is increased.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Physics Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovoth, Israel.
authors.forename: Shauli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Daon
authors.affiliation: Chemical Physics Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovoth, Israel.
authors.forename: Eli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pollak