Surface light-induced drift resulting from inelastic scattering

Surface light-induced drift (SLID) is known to give rise to an extremely se nsitive method of studying the state-specificity of gas-surface interaction s. SLID occurs under velocity-selective laser excitation of a resonant gas whenever the scattering, trapping, or chemisorption by the cell walls are s tate dependent. In this brief report we derive and solve kinetic equations to analyze SLID arising in the case of inelastic scattering. We analyze bot h (a) the case when the coefficients describing the inelasticity of gas-sur face quasi-specular scattering are state dependent, but are not dependent u pon the velocity of the impinging particle, and (b) the case of velocity-de pendent coefficients. Finally, we briefly outline the way to use this appro ach to interpret the results of possible experiments on SLID for atoms inte racting with simple surfaces.