Role of orientational forces in nonactivated molecular dissociation on a metal surface - art. no. 041402

Starting from a six-dimensional study of the dissociative adsorption proces s of H-2 on Pd(111), we show that orientational forces in the approach towa rd the surface determine the dissociation probability. We conclude that the nonmonotunous variation of the transition probability with energy observed in the experiments can be interpreted essentially with a two-dimensional m echanism involving only molecular translation and rotation.