A molecular beam study of the scattering and chemisorption dynamics of N-2on Ru(0001)

The chemisorption of N-2 on Ru{0001} has been studied with supersonic molec ular beams in the translational energy regime from 0.1 to 1.8 eV. No sticki ng with a probability of more than 10(-4) has been observed. Angular flux d istributions and variations in the kinetic energy of the scattered molecule s provide evidence for the existence of different scattering regimes. The s cattering behavior is explained in terms of scattering from a dual repulsiv e wall, which is attributed to the existence of a metastable molecular prec ursor state to nitrogen dissociation, thus providing indirect proof for rec ent theoretical predictions for this system. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.