Time-Resolved and State-Selective Study of Vibrationally Excited Molecules Scattering from Surfaces

The dynamics of gas–surface interactions has become an area of great interest recently. We present our study of the scattering of vibrationally excited nitric oxide molecules (NO) from a Ag(110) surface. The incident molecules were state-selectively excited to the v = 1, J = 3/2 state by a tunable IR light pulse, and the detection of the scattered molecules was by resonantly enhanced ionization using a tunable UV light pulse, again in a state-specific manner. For the first time known, we were able to detect scattered molecules directly with such a known initial condition and to determine their velocity, angular, and internal energy distributions.

© 1984 Optical Society of America