Effect of the molecular structure on the gas-surface scattering studied by supersonic molecular beam

The experimental apparatus for investigating the gas-surface interaction has been newly developed. The coherent length of the helium, the energy resolution and the angular spread of the beam in the apparatus were established as ω= 16 nm, DE/E = 2.4%\Delta E/E = 2.4{\%} and Δθ= 0.5^○, respectively, through the measurements of the time-of-flight of He beam and of the angular intensity distributions of He scattered from LiF(001). The angular intensity distributions of Ar, N₂ and CO scattered from the LiF(001) surface along the 100] azimuthal direction were then measured as a function of incident translational energy. The effects of the molecular structural anisotropy and center-of-mass position on the gas-surface inelastic collision at the corrugated surface are discussed with predictions based on a recently developed simple classical theory of the ellipsoid-washboard model.