Frustrated Translational and Rotational Modes of Molecularly Chemisorbed Species

通过对被吸附分子进行光谱表征，可以获得对被吸附分子与固体底物之间的键的详细了解。由于缺乏与这种能量机制相关的光谱探针，对这种吸附物-底物复合物的低能量模式了解甚少。该研究项目由化学部的分析和表面化学项目以及材料研究部的固态化学和聚合物项目支持，旨在获得这种低能量信息。氦原子散射已经发展成为一种可以解决这个问题的方法，罗格斯大学的B.J. Hinch教授和她的学生将利用这种方法来探测吸附在特征良好的表面上的模型分子的低能受挫旋转和平移。这一信息将为我们目前对化学吸附和表面化学键的理解提供严格的检验。这些信息对于从催化到电子设备制造的许多技术都是至关重要的。吸附分子的低能振动的光谱表征是本研究项目的重点。氦原子从被吸附的分子物种的散射将被用来获得这种光谱信息。这些迄今为止无法获得的数据将与目前的吸附理论进行比较，目的是增加我们对这一技术上重要现象的理解。

A detailed understanding of the bond between an adsorbed molecule and a solid substrate can be obtained by spectroscopic characterization of the adsorbed molecule. Very little has been learned about the low energy modes of this adsorbate-substrate complex, due to the lack of spectroscopic probes relevant to this energy regime. This research project, supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry and the Solid State Chemistry and Polymers Program in the Division of Materials Research, is directed toward obtaining this low energy information. Helium atom scattering has been developed as a method which can address this question, and Professor B.J. Hinch and her students at Rutgers University will take advantage of this method to probe the low energy frustrated rotations and translations of model molecules adsorbed on well characterized surfaces. This information will provide a stringent test of our present understanding of chemisorption and the surface chemical bond. This information is crucial to a number of technologies, ranging from catalysis to electronic device fabrication. Spectroscopic characterization of the low energy vibrations of adsorbed molecules is the focus of this research project. Scattering of helium atoms from adsorbed molecular species will be used to obtain this spectroscopic information. This heretofore unavailable data will be compared with current theories of adsorption, with the goal of increasing our understanding of this technologically important phenomenon.