Electronic processes near kinematic threshold for grazing scattering of fast hydrogen atoms from a LiF(001) surface

In coincident studies on projectile energy loss and number distributions of emitted electrons for scattering of hydrogen atoms from an atomically clean and flat LiF(0 0 1) surface we derive probabilities for emission of electrons and production of surface excitons near their respective kinematic thresholds. We analyze our data in terms of electron transfer in binary atomic collisions with one collision partner being embedded at the anion site of an ionic crystal and derive information on the energy defects in these collisions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.