Inelastic interaction in H2 dissociation on metals

Abstract Inelastic effects due to electron–hole pairs (ehp) in the calculated dissociative sticking coefficient of H 2 on metals are taken into account by a model, which is exactly solvable quantum mechanically. Results are presented for the non-activated sticking process on Pd(1 0 0) and compared with those for the activated one on Cu(1 1 1). In both cases the contribution to sticking of the dynamical polarization of the adiabatic electronic system with no energy loss to ehp is more relevant than the dissipative effect of explicitly exciting ehp. The ehp sticking coefficient of D 2 is significantly different from that of H 2 for low incoming molecule translational energies.