Debye-Waller factor in He->Cu(001) collisions revisited: the role of the interaction potentials

Following the recently accumulated information on the vibrational properties of the Cu(001) surface acquired through single- and multiphonon He atom scattering experiments and the concomitant theoretical investigations, we have re-examined the properties of the Debye-Waller factor (DWF) characteristic of the He-->Cu(001) collisions using the recently developed fully quantal and three-dimensional model of inelastic He atom scattering from surfaces. We have focused our attention on the-role which the various He-surface model potentials with their characteristic interaction parameters (range of the interaction, momentum and energy transfer cut-offs etc.) employed in the interpretation of the scattering data may play in determining the magnitude of the DWF. By combining the He-Cu(001) potential, whose repulsive and attractive components are both allowed to vibrate, with the substrate phonon density of states encompassing anharmonic effects, we obtain the values of the DWF which agree nicely with the experimental data without invoking additional fitting parameters. In contrast, by taking the phonon momentum transfer cut-off Q(c) as an adjustable parameter, as was frequently exploited in the literature, all the considered potentials can produce agreement with experiments by varying Q(c). The magnitudes of such best fit Q(c) values are compared with those available in the literature and their physical significance is discussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.