Electron transfer in the reflection of atoms from metal surfaces

The resonance mechanism for positive and negative ionization of an atom reflected from a metal surface is treated in the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approximation assuming that the atom moves on its classical trajectory. A simple model is parameterized to describe 30–500 eV Na atoms reflected from tungsten, and the ionization probabilities are calculated by numerical integration of the equation of motion of the time evolution operator. Significant ionization can only occur if either the ionization level, or the affinity level of the atom crosses the Fermi level beyond the range of the atom-metal hopping interaction. On clean tungsten, the former situation applies, and the probability of positive ionization is nearly unity, and of negative ionization nearly zero.