Excitation of adsorbed molecule vibrations in low energy electron scattering

We develop a theory of low energy electron loss spectroscopy of vibrational modes of molecules adsorbed on metal surfaces. Differential and total cross sections are calculated in the Distorted Wave Born Approximation, assuming i) strong elastic scattering on the metal surface, ii) direct electron-molecule interaction via the electric dipole field associated with the molecular vibration. The angular distributions are calculated and discussed for molecules adsorbed at various distances above the metal surface and for several electron energies and impact angles. The influence of electronic screening of dipolar oscillations is discussed and the consequences of the classical induced image dipoles are explored. It is shown that the metal surface selection rule known in IR spectroscopy is only approximately valid in electron scattering. Finally, we give numerical estimates of the inelastic scattering cross sections for the stretching vibrations of CO molecule adsorbed on transition metal surfaces, in reasonable agreement with experiments.