A quantum mechanical mechanism for the dissociative chemisorption of N2 on metal surfaces

M. Asscher*, O. M. Becker, G. Haase, R. Kosloff

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

54 Scopus citations

Abstract

The time dependent Schrödinger equation was numerically solved for the transition dynamics from the N2-metal to the N-metal to the N-metal potential energy surfaces. The resulting rapid increase of the dissociation probability (S0) with incident kinetic energy, its saturation at high energies and vibrational enhancement are in good agreement with recent experiments. A novel explanation for the small value of S0 is based on the high energy value of the crossing region between the two potentials, predicting that the dissociation occurs via a tunneling mechanism. Recombinative desorption experiments of 14N2 and 15N2 from Re(0001) are in excellent agreement with the tunneling model.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)L880-L887
JournalSurface Science
Volume206
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 1988

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