Molecule scattering from insulator and metal surfaces

Calculations are carried out and compared with data for the scattering of CH4 molecules from a LiF(001) surface and for O2 scattering from Al(111). The theory is a mixed classical-quantum formalism that includes energy and momentum transfers between the surface and projectile for translational and rotational motions as well as internal mode excitation of the projectile molecule. The translational and rotational degrees of freedom couple most strongly to multiphonon excitations of the surface and are treated with classical dynamics. Internal vibrational excitations of the molecules are treated with a semiclassical formalism with extension to arbitrary numbers of modes and arbitrary quantum numbers. Calculations show good agreement for the dependence on incident translational energy, incident beam angle and surface temperature when compared with data for energy-resolved intensity spectra and angular distributions.