Evidence for parallel confinement in resonant charge transfer of negative hydrogen ion near metal surfaces

Chakraborty, Himadri S.; Niederhausen, Thomas; thumm, Uwe

Evidence for parallel confinement in resonant charge transfer of negative hydrogen ion near metal surfaces

Authors

Chakraborty, Himadri S.

Niederhausen, Thomas

thumm, Uwe

Description

Using a wave packet propagation approach, we find that the resonant charge transfer process of H^- near a Cu(111) surface is strongly influenced by transient hybrid states. These states originate from an ion-induced confinement parallel to the surface together with the surface-localization character of the metal potential along the surface normal. The lowest members of these states have lifetimes of the order of interaction times in typical particle-surface scattering experiments. The propagation of the electron probability density provides clear evidence for this effect in visualizing the evolution and the decay of these transient states.
4 pages, 4 figures