SURFACE RESISTIVITY AND VIBRATIONAL DAMPING IN ADSORBED LAYERS

We derive a simple relation between the change in dc resistivity DELTA-rho of a thin metallic film due to adsorption of molecules on the film surface and the electron-hole pair damping (lifetime-tau) of the parallel frustrated translations of the adsorbates. From the measured DELTA-rho for several different adsorbate systems, we deduce the corresponding-tau which ranges from approximately 10(-12)s for chemisorption systems to approximately 10(-9)s for physisorption systems. The result of model calculations for the damping of parallel frustrated translations are presented for three limiting cases of the adsorbate-substrate bond, namely for covalent, ionic, and van der Waals bond.