On the synergistic effects of laser/phonon-stimulated processes: A master equation approach

The synergistic effects of an adspecies/surface system influenced by a coherent laser field and an incoherent thermal phonon field are theoretically investigated. A generalized master equation is derived in the Schrödinger-Markoff picture and the total stimulated transition rates are decomposed into three parts: thermal phonon, laser and the interference terms. The energy transfer dynamics is pictured via the evolution equation of the average excitation of the active mode. A random phase of the off-diagonal matrix elements induced by the laser-stimulated surface processes is introduced. Finally, possible applications of the laser/phonon-stimulated master equation are discussed.