Energy redistribution in diatomic molecules on surfaces

Translational and internal degrees of freedom of a scattered beam of NO molecules from a Pt(111) single crystal surface were measured as a function of scattering angle and crystal temperature in the range 450 to 1250K. None of the three degrees of freedom were found to fully accommodate to the crystal temperature, the translational degree being the most accommodated and the rotational degree of freedom the least. A precursor state model is suggested to account for the incomplete accommodation of translational and vibrational degrees of freedom as a function of crystal temperature and incident beam energy. The vibrational accommodation is further discussed in terms of a competition between desorption and vibrational excitation processes, thus providing valuable information on the interaction between vibrationally excited molecules and surfaces. Energy transfer into rotational degrees of freedom is qualitatively discussed