ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS OF MOLECULES THERMALLY DESORBED FROM A SURFACE

Abstract

Considerable interest has recently been focused on the question of energy distributions of molecules interacting with a surface. The classical techniques of molecular beam scattering give information about velocity and angular distributions of the molecules. Only with the advent of sensitive laser spectroscopic methods such as laser-induced fluorescence and resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization has it become possible to examine the energy distributions among internal states of the molecules as well. Laser detection techniques have been applied to investigate the scattering of molecules from surfaces, both specularly and diffusely, as well as to probe molecules formed in associative desorption. © 1988 Optical Society of America