Direct inelastic scattering of oriented NO from Ag(111) and Pt(111)

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Abstract
A pulsed supersonic and cold oriented beam of NO molecules is incident upon the (111) face of clean Ag and Pt single crystal surfaces. The steric effect in the scattered density distributions is determined by a quadrupole mass spectrometer. It is found that the steric effect in the peak in the distribution of direct inelastically scattered molecules depends linearly on the reflection angle. In all circumstances O-end collisions lead to scattering angles more inclined towards the surface than N-end collisions. For the Pt(111) surface a much stronger steric effect is measured than for the Ag(111) surface. The steric effect seems to scale with the incident normal velocity. These strong steric effects can be explained by the larger trapping probability for the N-end orientation and a leverage effect due to the high trapping probability.