Differences between thermal and laser-induced diffusion

Differences between thermal and laser-induced diffusion

A combination of femtosecond laser excitation with a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope is used to study long-range interaction during diffusion of CO on Cu(111). Both thermal and laser-driven diffusion show an oscillatory energy dependence on the distance to neighboring molecules. Surpri...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters Vol. 114; no. 14; p. 146104
Main Authors: Zaum, Ch, Meyer-Auf-der-Heide, K M, Mehlhorn, M, McDonough, S, Schneider, W F, Morgenstern, K
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States 10-04-2015
Subjects:
Diffusion
Femtosecond
Lasers
Mathematical analysis
Microscopes
Scanning
Stabilization
Vices
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A combination of femtosecond laser excitation with a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope is used to study long-range interaction during diffusion of CO on Cu(111). Both thermal and laser-driven diffusion show an oscillatory energy dependence on the distance to neighboring molecules. Surprisingly, the phase is inverted; i.e., at distances at which thermal diffusion is most difficult, it is easiest for laser-driven diffusion and vice versa. We explain this unexpected behavior by a transient stabilization of the negative ion during diffusion as corroborated by ab initio calculations.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.146104