CHAOTIC MOTION AND THE ENERGETICS OF PREDESORPTION

In this paper classical non-linear Hamiltonian dynamics is used to determine both the predesorption rates and the asymptotic energy distributions of CO molecules desorbing from NaCl in a regime where the coupling to the phonon bath may be ignored. Attention is focused to the rotational predesorption mechanism. The asymptotic energy distributions of CH3F desorbing from NaCl, owing to vibrational predesorption, are also calculated. In both cases it is shown that when an intramolecular mode is highly excited, the avel:age translational kinetic energy of outgoing molecules is unaffected by their other initial conditions.