A Haldane–Anderson Hamiltonian model for hyperthermal hydrogen scattering from a semiconductor surface

Abstract

Collisions of atoms and molecules with metal surfaces create electronic excitations in the metal, leading to nonadiabatic energy dissipation, inelastic scattering, and sticking. Mixed quantum-classical molecular dynamics simulation methods, such as molecular dynamics with electronic friction, are able to capture nonadiabatic energy loss during dynamics at metal surfaces. Hydrogen atom scattering from semiconductors, on the other hand, exhibits strong adsorbate-surface energy transfer only when the projectile kinetic energy exceeds the bandgap of the substrate. Electronic friction fails to describe this effect. Here, we report a first-principles parameterization of a simple Haldane–Anderson Hamiltonian model of hydrogen atom gas-surface scattering on Ge(111)c(2 × 8), for which hyperthermal scattering experiments have been reported. We subsequently perform independent-electron surface hopping and Ehrenfest dynamics simulations on this model and validate these results through numerically exact quantum-dynamical simulations using the hierarchical equation of motion approach. While mean-field dynamics yield weak nonadiabatic energy loss that is independent of the initial kinetic energy, independent electron surface hopping simulations qualitatively agree with the experimental observation that nonadiabatic energy dissipation only occurs if the initial kinetic energy exceeds the bandgap of the surface.