Abstract
We consider atom-surface scattering at low surface temperature, fixed incident energy, and fixed interaction potential. We examine the limit as the mass m of the incident particle →∞, and thus its de Broglie wavelength →0. We show that in this ‘‘classical’’ limit, at zero temperature, the Debye-Waller factor, i.e., the probability of strictly elastic scattering (a quantum effect), tends to a finite limit (<1). We propose scattering of 20-meV Ar atoms from cold Cu(111) as a promising experiment to verify this effect, and estimate the Debye-Waller factor for this system.
- Received 18 September 1990
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.43.2477
©1991 American Physical Society