A Stochastic Trajectory Approach to Gas-Surface Inelastic Collisions

The optical potential method is introduced to deal with the inelastic scattering of gas atoms by solid surfaces. Using the local approximation for the optical potential, the semi-classi­ cal theories of the Debye-Waller factor and the energy-loss distribution are reexamined. A stochastic equation of motion taking into account the many phonon effect is applied to obtain the transition probabilities.