Scattering of xenon from Ni(111): Collision-induced corrugation and energy transfer dynamics

Experiments have been conducted in which a beam of xenon atoms collides with a clean Ni(111) surface, and the speed and angular distributions of the scattered Xe atoms are measured for different incident energies, incident angles, and surface temperatures. At high incident energies, the translational energy of the scattered Xe is independent of initial and final scattering angles. This result is attributed to multiple xenon-surface collisions prior to Xe escape. At lower incident energies, the scattering behavior depends more on the scattering angle. Interestingly, a small fraction of Xe is trapped on a 250 K Ni(111) surface at high incident translational energies. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)70304-7].