Molecular beam scattering from clean surfaces of alkali halides

Molecular beam scattering of light gases from in situ cleaved alkali halide surfaces has been studied as a means of developing molecular beam scattering as a surface characterization tool and as a means of obtaining information about the gas atom-solid surface potential interaction. For 4He scattering from LiF carried out under improved resolution the main results are: (1) there are four bound states in the surface potential well, as energies of -5.8, -2.2, -0.6 and -0.1 MeV. (2) Most of the structure designated as ''fine structure'' is due either to transitions to these four levels via various small reciprocal lattice vectors or to the opening of diffraction channels. (3) The transitions involving the (01) and (0 anti 1) reciprocal lattice vectors (i.e., the ones nearly perpendicular to the incident wavevector) are strong; as much as 85 percent of the specular intensity may be removed. Transitions via the other small reciprocal lattice vectors are much weaker. (4) The widths of the lines are consistent with the velocity distribution, which has a half-width of about 2 percent. (5) The observed energies agree fairly well with those calculated for a zeta-function potential, but are not consistent with a Morse potential. The preliminary results for 4He/NaF scattering are that there are three bound-states in the surface potential well and are quite similar to the LiF results. These energies are -5.0, -1.9, and -0.5 MeV. 4He/NaF selective adsorption also shows ''fine structure'' and a more detailed analysis is called for here