MONTE-CARLO SIMULATION OF ENERGY-DISSIPATION OF RECOMBINING HYDROGEN IN A MAZE

Studies of 2-D atomic hydrogen at high densities on helium surfaces ha ve been plagued by the heating of the surfaces due to recombination, w hich dissipates more than 52, 000K for each recombining pair of atoms in the cell. When hydrogen recombines an a surface, it deposits less t han 4% of its energy at the point of recombination and the rest is car ried off by the excited molecule. We have designed a maze to absorb ma st of this energy, and carried out a Monte Carlo simulation to show th at approximately 87% of the energy is dissipated in the maze, preventi ng the surface from getting excessively heated, even at high surface d ensities. This simulation varies the number of inelastic collisions wi th the maze wall for complete relaxation, the fraction of elastic coll isions, and the angular distribution of excited molecules desorbing fr om the walls.