Vibrational energy transfer in collisions of molecules with metal surfaces.

The Born-Oppenheimer approximation (BOA), which serves as the basis for our understanding of chemical bonding, reactivity and dynamics, is routinely violated for vibrationally inelastic scattering of molecules at metal surfaces. The title-field therefore represents a fascinating challenge to our conventional wisdom calling for new concepts that involve explicit electron dynamics occurring in concert with nuclear motion. Here, we review progress made in this field over the last decade, which has witnessed dramatic advances in experimental methods, thereby providing a much more extensive set of diverse observations than has ever before been available. We first review the experimental methods used in this field and then provide a systematic tour of the vast array of observations that are currently available. We show how these observations - taken together and without reference to computational simulations - lead us to a simple and intuitive picture of BOA failure in molecular dynamics at metal surfaces, one where electron transfer between the molecule and the metal plays a preeminent role. We also review recent progress made in the theory of electron transfer mediated BOA failure in molecule-surface interactions, describing the most important methods and their ability to reproduce experimental observation. Finally, we outline future directions for research and important unanswered questions.

Quantum and classical molecular dynamics for H atom scattering from graphene.

This work presents systematic comparisons between classical molecular dynamics (cMD) and quantum dynamics (QD) simulations of 15-dimensional and 75-dimensional models in their description of H atom scattering from graphene. We use an experimentally validated full-dimensional neural network potential energy surface of a hydrogen atom interacting with a large cell of graphene containing 24 carbon atoms. For quantum dynamics simulations, we apply Monte Carlo canonical polyadic decomposition to transform the original potential energy surface (PES) into a sum of products form and use the multi-layer multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree method to simulate the quantum scattering of a hydrogen or deuterium atom with an initial kinetic energy of 1.96 or 0.96 eV and an incident angle of 0°, i.e., perpendicular to the graphene surface. The cMD and QD initial conditions have been carefully chosen in order to be as close as possible. Our results show little differences between cMD and QD simulations when the incident energy of the H atom is equal to 1.96 eV. However, a large difference in sticking probability is observed when the incident energy of the H atom is equal to 0.96 eV, indicating the predominance of quantum effects. To the best of our knowledge, our work provides the first benchmark of quantum against classical simulations for a system of this size with a realistic PES. Additionally, new projectors are implemented in the Heidelberg multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree package for the calculation of the atom scattering energy transfer distribution as a function of outgoing angles.

Generation of Sub-nanosecond H Atom Pulses for Scattering from Single-Crystal Epitaxial Graphene.

Pulsed molecular beams allow high-density gas samples to be cooled to low internal temperatures and to produce narrow speed distributions. They are particularly useful in combination with pulsed-laser-based detection schemes and have also been used as pump pulses in pump-probe experiments with neutral matter. The mechanical response of pulsed valves and chopper wheels limits the duration of these pulses typically to about 10-100 µs. Bunch compression photolysis has been proposed as a means to produce atomic pulses shorter than 1 ns─an experimental capability that would allow new measurements to be made on chemical systems. This technique employs a spatially chirped femtosecond duration photolysis pulse that produced an ensemble of H atom photoproducts that rebunches into a short pulse downstream. To date, this technique could not produce strong enough beams to allow new experiments to be carried out. In this paper, we report production of pulsed H atom beams consistent with a 700 ps pulse duration and with sufficient intensity to carry out differentially resolved inelastic H scattering experiments from a graphene surface. We observe surprisingly narrow angular distributions for H atoms incident normal to the surface. At low incidence energies quasi-elastic scattering dominates, and at high incidence energy we observe a strongly inelastic scattering channel. These results provide the basis for future experiments where the H atoms synchronously collide with a pulsed-laser-excited surface.

Application of an Event-Based Camera for Real-Time Velocity Resolved Kinetics.

We describe here the application of an inexpensive event-based/neuromorphic camera in an ion imaging experiment operated at 1 kHz detection rate to study real-time velocity-resolved kinetics of thermal desorption. Such measurements involve a single gas pulse to initiate a time-dependent desorption process and a high repetition rate laser, where each pulse of the laser is used to produce an ion image. The sequence of ion images allows the time dependence of the desorption flux to be followed in real time. In previous work where a conventional framing camera was used, the large number of megapixel-sized images required data transfer and storage rates of up to 16 GB/s. This necessitated a large onboard memory that was quickly filled and limited continuous measurement to only a few seconds. Read-out of the memory became the bottleneck to the rate of data acquisition. We show here that since most pixels in each ion image contain no data, the data rate can be dramatically reduced by using an event-based/neuromorphic camera. The data stream is thus reduced to the intensity and location information on the pixels that are lit up by each ion event together with a time-stamp indicating the arrival time of an ion at the detector. This dramatically increases the duty cycle of the method and provides insights for the execution of other high rep-rate ion imaging experiments.

Kinetics of NH3 Desorption and Diffusion on Pt: Implications for the Ostwald Process.

We report accurate time-resolved measurements of NH3 desorption from Pt(111) and Pt(332) and use these results to determine elementary rate constants for desorption from steps, from (111) terrace sites and for diffusion on (111) terraces. Modeling the extracted rate constants with transition state theory, we find that conventional models for partition functions, which rely on uncoupled degrees of freedom (DOFs), are not able to reproduce the experimental observations. The results can be reproduced using a more sophisticated partition function, which couples DOFs that are most sensitive to NH3 translation parallel to the surface; this approach yields accurate values for the NH3 binding energy to Pt(111) (1.13 ± 0.02 eV) and the diffusion barrier (0.71 ± 0.04 eV). In addition, we determine NH3's binding energy preference for steps over terraces on Pt (0.23 ± 0.03 eV). The ratio of the diffusion barrier to desorption energy is ∼0.65, in violation of the so-called 12% rule. Using our derived diffusion/desorption rates, we explain why established rate models of the Ostwald process incorrectly predict low selectivity and yields of NO under typical reactor operating conditions. Our results suggest that mean-field kinetics models have limited applicability for modeling the Ostwald process.

Measuring Transient Reaction Rates from Nonstationary Catalysts.

Up to now, methods for measuring rates of reactions on catalysts required long measurement times involving signal averaging over many experiments. This imposed a requirement that the catalyst return to its original state at the end of each experiment-a complete reversibility requirement. For real catalysts, fulfilling the reversibility requirement is often impossible-catalysts under reaction conditions may change their chemical composition and structure as they become activated or while they are being poisoned through use. It is therefore desirable to develop high-speed methods where transient rates can be quickly measured while catalysts are changing. In this work, we present velocity-resolved kinetics using high-repetition-rate pulsed laser ionization and high-speed ion imaging detection. The reaction is initiated by a single molecular beam pulse incident at the surface, and the product formation rate is observed by a sequence of pulses produced by a high-repetition-rate laser. Ion imaging provides the desorbing product flux (reaction rate) as a function of reaction time for each laser pulse. We demonstrate the principle of this approach by rate measurements on two simple reactions: CO desorption from and CO oxidation on the 332 facet of Pd. This approach overcomes the time-consuming scanning of the delay between CO and laser pulses needed in past experiments and delivers a data acquisition rate that is 10-1000 times higher. We are able to record kinetic traces of CO2 formation while a CO beam titrates oxygen atoms from an O-saturated surface. This approach also allows measurements of reaction rates under diffusion-controlled conditions.

Observation of the adsorption and desorption of vibrationally excited molecules on a metal surface.

The most common mechanism of catalytic surface chemistry is that of Langmuir and Hinshelwood (LH). In the LH mechanism, reactants adsorb, become thermalized with the surface, and subsequently react. The measured vibrational (relaxation) lifetimes of molecules adsorbed at metal surfaces are in the range of a few picoseconds. As a consequence, vibrational promotion of LH chemistry is rarely observed, with the exception of LH reactions occurring via a molecular physisorbed intermediate. Here, we directly detect adsorption and subsequent desorption of vibrationally excited CO molecules from a Au(111) surface. Our results show that CO (v = 1) survives on a Au(111) surface for ~1 × 10-10 s. Such long vibrational lifetimes for adsorbates on metal surfaces are unexpected and pose an interesting challenge to the current understanding of vibrational energy dissipation on metal surfaces. They also suggest that vibrational promotion of surface chemistry might be more common than is generally believed.

Optical sensor system for time-resolved quantification of methane densities in CH4-fueled spark ignition engines.

We present the development and the first application of an optical sensor system that allows single-cycle determination of methane (CH4) concentration inside internal combustion (IC) engines. We use non-dispersive infrared absorption spectroscopy to detect the CH4 density with a time resolution up to 33 µs at acquisition rates of 30 kHz. The measurement scheme takes advantage of the strong temperature dependence of the absorption band applying two detection channels for CH4 that detect different spectral regions of the ν3 anti-symmetric C-H-stretch absorption. The strategy allows the simultaneous determination of fuel concentration as well as gas temperature. We show the proof-of-concept by validation of the measurement strategy in static pressure cell experiments as well as its application to a methane-fueled IC engine using a modified spark plug probe. Our results clearly demonstrate that it is crucial to determine the CH4 temperature in the probe volume. Due to thermal influences of the sensor probe, the temperature needed to calculate the desired quantities (fuel density, fuel concentration) significantly differs from the gas phase temperature in the rest of the combustion chamber and estimations from standard thermodynamic models, e.g., polytropic compression, will fail.

The dynamics of molecular interactions and chemical reactions at metal surfaces: testing the foundations of theory.

We review studies of molecular interactions and chemical reactions at metal surfaces, emphasizing progress toward a predictive theory of surface chemistry and catalysis. For chemistry at metal surfaces, a small number of central approximations are typically made: (a) the Born-Oppenheimer approximation of electronic adiabaticity, (b) the use of density functional theory at the generalized gradient approximation level, (c) the classical approximation for nuclear motion, and (d) various reduced-dimensionality approximations. Together, these approximations constitute a provisional model for surface chemical reactivity. We review work on some carefully studied examples of molecules interacting at metal surfaces that probe the validity of various aspects of the provisional model.

CO desorption from a catalytic surface: elucidation of the role of steps by velocity-selected residence time measurements.

Directly measuring the rate of a surface chemical reaction remains a challenging problem. For example, even after more than 30 years of study, there is still no agreement on the kinetic parameters for one of the simplest surface reactions: desorption of CO from Pt(111). We present a new experimental technique for determining rates of surface reactions, the velocity-selected residence time method, and demonstrate it for thermal desorption of CO from Pt(111). We use UV−UV double resonance spectroscopy to record surface residence times at selected final velocities of the desorbing CO subsequent to dosing with a pulsed molecular beam. Velocity selection differentiates trapping-desorption from direct scattering and removes influences on the temporal profile arising from the velocity distribution of the desorbing CO. The kinetic data thus obtained are of such high quality that bi-exponential desorption kinetics of CO from Pt(111) can be clearly seen. We assign the faster of the two rate processes to desorption from (111) terraces, and the slower rate process to sequential diffusion from steps to terraces followed by desorption. The influence of steps, whose density may vary from crystal to crystal, accounts for the diversity of previously reported (single exponential) kinetics results. Using transition-state theory, we derive the binding energy of CO to Pt(111) terraces, D(0)(terr) (Pt−CO) = 34 ± 1 kcal/mol (1.47 ± 0.04 eV) for the low coverage limit (≤0.03 ML) where adsorbate−adsorbate interactions are negligible. This provides a useful benchmark for electronic structure theory of adsorbates on metal surfaces.

Electron hole pair mediated vibrational excitation in CO scattering from Au(111): incidence energy and surface temperature dependence.

We investigated the translational incidence energy (Ei) and surface temperature (Ts) dependence of CO vibrational excitation upon scattering from a clean Au(111) surface. We report absolute v = 0 → 1 excitation probabilities for Ei between 0.16 and 0.84 eV and Ts between 473 and 973 K. This is now only the second collision system where such comprehensive measurements are available - the first is NO on Au(111). For CO on Au(111), vibrational excitation occurs via direct inelastic scattering through electron hole pair mediated energy transfer - it is enhanced by incidence translation and the electronically non-adiabatic coupling is about 5 times weaker than in NO scattering from Au(111). Vibrational excitation via the trapping desorption channel dominates at Ei = 0.16 eV and quickly disappears at higher Ei.

Incidence energy dependent state-to-state time-of-flight measurements of NO(v = 3) collisions with Au(111): the fate of incidence vibrational and translational energy.

We report measurements of translational energy distributions when scattering NO(vi = 3, Ji = 1.5) from a Au(111) surface into vibrational states vf = 1, 2, 3 and rotational states up to Jf = 32.5 for various incidence energies ranging from 0.11 eV to 0.98 eV. We observed that the vibration-to-translation as well as the translation-to-rotation coupling depend on translational incidence energy, EI. The vibration-to-translation coupling, i.e. the additional recoil energy observed for vibrationally inelastic (v = 3 → 2, 1) scattering, is seen to increase with increasing EI. The final translational energy decreases approximately linearly with increasing rotational excitation. At incidence energies EI > 0.5 eV, the slopes of these dependencies are constant and identical for the three vibrational channels. At lower incidence energies, the slopes gradually approach zero for the vibrationally elastic channel while they exhibit more abrupt transitions for the vibrationally inelastic channels. We discuss possible mechanisms for both effects within the context of nonadiabatic electron-hole pair mediated energy transfer and orientation effects.

Dynamical steering in an electron transfer surface reaction: oriented NO(v = 3, 0.08 < Ei < 0.89 eV) relaxation in collisions with a Au(111) surface.

We report measurements of the incidence translational energy dependence of steric effects in collisions of NO(v = 3) molecules with a Au(111) surface using a recently developed technique to orient beams of vibrationally excited NO molecules at incidence energies of translation between 0.08 and 0.89 eV. Incidence orientation dependent vibrational state distributions of scattered molecules are detected by means of resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization spectroscopy. Molecules oriented with the N-end towards the surface exhibit a higher vibrational relaxation probability than those oriented with the O-end towards the surface. This strong orientation dependence arises from the orientation dependence of the underlying electron transfer reaction responsible for the vibrational relaxation. At reduced incidence translational energy, we observe a reduced steric effect. This reflects dynamical steering and re-orientation of the NO molecule upon its approach to the surface.

The importance of accurate adiabatic interaction potentials for the correct description of electronically nonadiabatic vibrational energy transfer: a combined experimental and theoretical study of NO(v = 3) collisions with a Au(111) surface.

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of NO(v = 3 → 3, 2, 1) scattering from a Au(111) surface at incidence translational energies ranging from 0.1 to 1.2 eV. Experimentally, molecular beam-surface scattering is combined with vibrational overtone pumping and quantum-state selective detection of the recoiling molecules. Theoretically, we employ a recently developed first-principles approach, which employs an Independent Electron Surface Hopping (IESH) algorithm to model the nonadiabatic dynamics on a Newns-Anderson Hamiltonian derived from density functional theory. This approach has been successful when compared to previously reported NO/Au scattering data. The experiments presented here show that vibrational relaxation probabilities increase with incidence energy of translation. The theoretical simulations incorrectly predict high relaxation probabilities at low incidence translational energy. We show that this behavior originates from trajectories exhibiting multiple bounces at the surface, associated with deeper penetration and favored (N-down) molecular orientation, resulting in a higher average number of electronic hops and thus stronger vibrational relaxation. The experimentally observed narrow angular distributions suggest that mainly single-bounce collisions are important. Restricting the simulations by selecting only single-bounce trajectories improves agreement with experiment. The multiple bounce artifacts discovered in this work are also present in simulations employing electronic friction and even for electronically adiabatic simulations, meaning they are not a direct result of the IESH algorithm. This work demonstrates how even subtle errors in the adiabatic interaction potential, especially those that influence the interaction time of the molecule with the surface, can lead to an incorrect description of electronically nonadiabatic vibrational energy transfer in molecule-surface collisions.

Observation of orientation-dependent electron transfer in molecule-surface collisions.

Molecules typically must point in specific relative directions to participate efficiently in energy transfer and reactions. For example, Förster energy transfer favors specific relative directions of each molecule's transition dipole [Förster T (1948) Ann Phys 2(1-2):55-75] and electron transfer between gas-phase molecules often depends on the relative orientation of orbitals [Brooks PR, et al. (2007) J Am Chem Soc 129(50):15572-15580]. Surface chemical reactions can be many orders of magnitude faster than their gas-phase analogs, a fact that underscores the importance of surfaces for catalysis. One reason surface reactions can be so fast is the labile change of oxidation state that commonly takes place upon adsorption, a process involving electron transfer between a solid metal and an approaching molecule. By transferring electrons to or from the adsorbate, the process of bond weakening and/or cleavage is initiated, chemically activating the reactant [Yoon B, et al. (2005) Science 307(5708):403-407]. Here, we show that the vibrational relaxation of NO--an example of electronically nonadiabatic energy transfer that is driven by an electron transfer event [Gadzuk JW (1983) J Chem Phys 79(12):6341-6348]--is dramatically enhanced when the molecule approaches an Au(111) surface with the N atom oriented toward the surface. This represents a rare opportunity to investigate the steric influences on an electron transfer reaction happening at a surface.

Experimental and theoretical study of multi-quantum vibrational excitation: NO(v = 0→1,2,3) in collisions with Au(111).

We measured absolute probabilities for vibrational excitation of NO(v = 0) molecules in collisions with a Au(111) surface at an incidence energy of translation of 0.4 eV and surface temperatures between 300 and 1100 K. In addition to previously reported excitation to v = 1 and v = 2, we observed excitation to v = 3. The excitation probabilities exhibit an Arrhenius dependence on surface temperature, indicating that the dominant excitation mechanism is nonadiabatic coupling to electron-hole pairs. The experimental data are analyzed in terms of a recently introduced kinetic model, which was extended to include four vibrational states. We describe a subpopulation decomposition of the kinetic model, which allows us to examine vibrational population transfer pathways. The analysis indicates that sequential pathways (v = 0 → 1 → 2 and v = 0 → 1 → 2 → 3) alone cannot adequately describe production of v = 2 or 3. In addition, we performed first-principles molecular dynamics calculations that incorporate electronically nonadiabatic dynamics via an independent electron surface hopping (IESH) algorithm, which requires as input an ab initio potential energy hypersurface (PES) and nonadiabatic coupling matrix elements, both obtained from density functional theory (DFT). While the IESH-based simulations reproduce the v = 1 data well, they slightly underestimate the excitation probabilities for v = 2, and they significantly underestimate those for v = 3. Furthermore, this implementation of IESH appears to overestimate the importance of sequential energy transfer pathways. We make several suggestions concerning ways to improve this IESH-based model.

State-to-state time-of-flight measurements of NO scattering from Au(111): direct observation of translation-to-vibration coupling in electronically nonadiabatic energy transfer.

Translational motion is believed to be a spectator degree of freedom in electronically nonadiabatic vibrational energy transfer between molecules and metal surfaces, but the experimental evidence available to support this view is limited. In this work, we have experimentally determined the translational inelasticity in collisions of NO molecules with a single-crystal Au(111) surface-a system with strong electronic nonadiabaticity. State-to-state molecular beam surface scattering was combined with an IR-UV double resonance scheme to obtain high-resolution time-of-flight data. The measurements include vibrationally elastic collisions (v = 3→3, 2→2) as well as collisions where one or two quanta of molecular vibration are excited (2→3, 2→4) or de-excited (2→1, 3→2, 3→1). In addition, we have carried out comprehensive measurements of the effects of rotational excitation on the translational energy of the scattered molecules. We find that under all conditions of this work, the NO molecules lose a large fraction (∼0.45) of their incidence translational energy to the surface. Those molecules that undergo vibrational excitation (relaxation) during the collision recoil slightly slower (faster) than vibrationally elastically scattered molecules. The amount of translational energy change depends on the surface temperature. The translation-to-rotation coupling, which is well-known for v = 0→0 collisions, is found to be significantly weaker for vibrationally inelastic than elastic channels. Our results clearly show that the spectator view of the translational motion in electronically nonadiabatic vibrational energy transfer between NO and Au(111) is only approximately correct.

Observation of direct vibrational excitation in gas-surface collisions of CO with Au(111): a new model system for surface dynamics.

We report vibrational excitation of CO from its ground (v = 0) to first excited (v = 1) vibrational state in collision with Au(111) at an incidence energy of translation of E(I) = 0.45 eV. Unlike past work, we can exclude an excitation mechanism involving temporary adsorption on the surface followed by thermalization and desorption. The angular distributions of the scattered CO molecules are narrow, consistent with direct scattering occurring on a sub-ps time scale. The absolute excitation probabilities are about 3% of those expected from thermal accommodation. The surface temperature dependence of excitation, which was measured between 373 and 973 K, is Arrhenius-like with an activation energy equal to the energy required for vibrational excitation. Our measurements are consistent with a vibrational excitation mechanism involving coupling of thermally excited electron-hole pairs of the solid to CO vibration.

On the determination of absolute vibrational excitation probabilities in molecule-surface scattering: case study of NO on Au(111).

We describe a method to obtain absolute vibrational excitation probabilities of molecules scattering from a surface based on measurements of the rotational state, scattering angle, and temporal distributions of the scattered molecules and apply this method to the vibrational excitation of NO scattering from Au(111). We report the absolute excitation probabilities to the v = 1 and v = 2 vibrational states, rotational excitation distributions, and final scattering angle distributions for a wide range of incidence energies and surface temperatures. In addition to demonstrating the methodology for obtaining absolute scattering probabilities, these results provide an excellent benchmark for theoretical calculations of molecule-surface scattering.

Multiquantum vibrational excitation of NO scattered from Au(111): quantitative comparison of benchmark data to ab initio theories of nonadiabatic molecule-surface interactions.

Surface phenomena: measurements of absolute probabilities are reported for the vibrational excitation of NO(v=0→1,2) molecules scattered from a Au(111) surface. These measurements were quantitatively compared to calculations based on ab initio theoretical approaches to electronically nonadiabatic molecule-surface interactions. Good agreement was found between theory and experiment (see picture; T(s) =surface temperature, P=excitation probability, and E=incidence energy of translation).