Electron dynamics and level broadening in slow atomic interactions with metal surfaces and thin metallic films

Theoretical results on the electron dynamics and on resonant level broadening in slow atomic interactions with metal surfaces and thin metallic films are presented. Within the time-dependent close-coupling method, a wave-packet approach is introduced in which nondiagonal couplings in the subspace of metal states are taken into account. This approach is applied in a study of the time evolution of the occupation of hydrogen states in front of a semi-infinite metal. First-order level widths are calculated for hydrogenic atoms interacting with thin metallic Alms. They are found to exhibit pronounced size-quantization effects arising from the confinement of the electronic motion in the growth direction of the film. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.