ENERGY-TRANSFER PROCESSES AND SURFACE CORRUGATION - A COMBINED COLLISION DYNAMICS AND EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF THE XE-GASE(001) SYSTEM

The scattering of Xe atoms from GaSe(001) has shown interesting featur es that can enlighten the energy exchange mechanism when a soft and co rrugated surface is involved. A comparison with the flat metal surface s shows very distinct behavior. We investigate the Xe-GaSe direct inel astic collisions by using a semi-classical collisional method and a th ree-dimensional energy surface derived from the physical properties of the interacting partners. It emerges a strong coupling between the en ergy exchanged parallel and perpendicular to the surface with an impor tant role played by the conversion between the components of the momen tum of the Xe atom during the collision. These features compare well w ith the experimental evidence.