Electron-hole pair excitation in molecule-surface collisions

We investigate the role of electron-hole pair excitation in molecule-surfac e collisions by using a semiclassical model which incorporates coupling to phonons and electrons in the substrate. The model treats the dynamics of th e incoming molecule by classical mechanics but quantizes the phonons and el ectrons using second quantization techniques. We find that neither phonons nor electron-hole pair excitation can be neglected for an accurate descript ion of molecule-surface collisions. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)70401-6].