Interference-effects in the laser-induced desorption of small molecules from surfaces: a model study Original Research Article

A diabatic treatment of laser-induced desorption of small molecules from surfaces is considered to be an essential step of the theoretical quantum mechanical simulation of a DIET process on an ab initio basis. The consequences of this treatment are investigated especially with respect to the resulting velocity distributions of the desorbing species. The distributions of NO desorbing from nickel oxide surfaces are characterised by a bimodal structure. In our calculations the diabatic coupling between several investigated two-state systems is introduced via the off-diagonal elements of the Hamiltonian, which determines the time evolution of the quantum system. This procedure is the basis for a discussion of the experimentally observed features in the velocity distributions in terms of a coherent diabatic picture.