Electron-hole pair excitation in molecule-surface collisions

We investigate the role of electron-hole pair excitation in molecule-surface collisions by using a semiclassical model which incorporates coupling to phonons and electrons in the substrate. The model treats the dynamics of the incoming molecule by classical mechanics but quantizes the phonons and electrons using second quantization techniques. We find that neither phonons nor electron-hole pair excitation can be neglected for an accurate description of molecule-surface collisions. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)70401-6].