Response-function theory of laser-stimulated desorption of atoms from solid surfaces

Laser-stimulated desorption fiom solid surfaces is studied as a special case of the theory of linear response functions. For many problems, for example calculation of the minimum intensity of the laser radiation field necessary for desorption, it is shown that the only dynamical property of the host system (lattice) which is required is the Laplace transform of the “response function” of the atom of the host lattice to which the adsorbed atom is attached. The results for one-dimensional host lattices with N atoms are compared with similar results obtained recently, using a quite different approach, by Murphy and George, Surface Sci. 102 (1981) L46. Effects of dimensionality of the host lattice are discussed, and an explicit comparison is presented of the results for simplified one- and three-dimensional host lattice models. Applications of the work to calculation of frequencies of normal modes of the adsorbed systems which are localized at the adsorbates (“localized modes”) are discussed and compared with previous analyses.