Self-consistent calculations of rare-gas–transition-metal interaction potentials

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Abstract
A model Hamiltonian is used to calculate potential-energy surfaces for He and Ne on the (110) faces of Ni, Cu, Pd, and Ag. The calculations are nonperturbative, self-consistent, and contain no parameters which are fittable with respect to the gas-solid interaction. Static image-force effects are included. The theory represents the first quantum-mechanical approach to rare-gas–transition-metal potentials which includes the interaction of the rare-gas orbitals with the d electrons in a consistent way. Corrugation is found to be approximately proportional to the d-electron charge density. The sp band is represented by a Sommerfeld model with hybridization gap, which does not contribute to the corrugation. Part of the potential arises through the hybridization of the rare-gas orbitals with the unoccupied metal states. This interference energy is roughly a factor of 2 larger for neon than for helium, leading to larger corrugations of the neon potentials as compared with the helium potentials. This is in agreement with recent experiments, but in contrast to earlier theoretical predictions. The theoretically calculated corrugations and well depths compare reasonably to the experimental data where available. The computed values of corrugation for He increase in the order Ni, Cu, Ag, and Pd. This agrees with experiments where soft potentials have been fitted to the scattering data, although the predicted He/Ni(110) corrugation is overly large by more than a factor of 2. With increasing energy, the He corrugation increases slightly in the calculations. The dependence is nearly constant for Ni and strongest for Pd. For Ne/Ni(110) and Ne/Pd(110) corrugation decreases with energy. Image-force effects are found to be important for the corrugation and softness of the neon potentials.