ISSN:
1089-7690
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
Notes:
We report time-dependent close-coupled wave packet calculations of transition probabilities for the direct rotationally inelastic scattering of oriented NO(X 2Π) molecules from a rigid, flat Pt surface. A comparison is made with the recent experiments of Kuipers, Tenner, Kleyn, and Stolte [Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 2152 (1989); J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 8, 2692 (1990)] on NO molecules which were state selected with an electrostatic hexapole lens and oriented in a Stark field. Compared with unoriented molecules, the mean rotational energy is increased (decreased) by approximately 15% when the O end (N end) of the molecule is directed towards the surface, in qualitative agreement with experiment. An analysis of the rotational excitation mechanism in this collision system shows that the steric effect is strongly influenced by the dependence of the attractive region of the gas–surface potential on molecular orientation.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.460345
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