Vibrational Relaxation Lifetime of a Physisorbed Molecule at a Metal Surface
Sumit Kumar1, Hongyan Jiang1, Michael Schwarzer2
1Department of Dynamics at Surfaces, Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Fassberg 11, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
Previous measurements of vibrational relaxation lifetimes for molecules adsorbed at metal surfaces yielded values of 1-3 ps; however, only chemisorbed molecules have been studied. We report the first measurements of the vibrational relaxation lifetime of a molecule physisorbed to a metal surface. For CO(v=1) adsorbed on Au(111) at 35 K the vibrational lifetime of the excited stretching mode is 49±3 ps. The long lifetime seen here is likely to be a general feature of physisorption, which involves weaker electronic coupling between the adsorbate and the solid due to bonding at larger distances.
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