Direct inelastic scattering of N2 from Ag(111). I. Rotational populations and alignment

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Abstract
The rotational state populations and the quadrupole and hexadecapole alignment moments of N2 scattered off clean Ag(111) are determined by resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI). The scattered N2 is found to be highly aligned with its rotational angular momentum vector J parallel to the surface. The degree of alignment is found to increase with increasing rotational excitation. We see less than perfect alignment at intermediate J values indicating that the surface is not completely flat. The alignment is relatively insensitive to incident energy, incident angle, or surface temperature Ts. However, the rotational state population distributions show pronounced rainbows for higher incident energy and/or more grazing exit angle. The rotational state distributions are found to depend strongly on the final scattering angle at low Ts; this effect is markedly reduced at higher Ts. Time‐of‐flight measurements are used to determine the average velocity of the scattered N2 as a function of rotational level. It is found that higher rotational excitation correlates with lower average velocity and that the incident molecules lose 20%–30% of their translational energy to the solid. No correlation is found between velocity and alignment. A comparison is made with published results for the NO/Ag(111) system and a variety of theoretical models found in the literature.