Benchmarking and developing models for molecule-surface potential energy surfaces. The difficulties and opportunities arising from experimental data which is too detailed and too sensitive

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• Gil Alexandrowicz, Department of Chemistry, The University of Swansea
• Thursday 23 May 2024, 15:00-16:00
• Mott Seminar Room, Cavendish Laboratory.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Stephen Walley.

In our group we have developed an interferometry based technique which is capable of controlling and measuring the rotational projection quantum state of ground state hydrogen molecules, before and after they collide with a surface [1-3]. The technique is based on ultra-low-energy (pico eV) manipulations using a series of inhomogeneous and homogeneous magnetic fields. The complexity of the interference patterns we can measure allows us to quantitatively measure changes of the complex amplitudes of the rotational wave function, which in turn are extremely sensitive to the interaction potential the molecule experienced during the scattering event. During the seminar I will explain the technique and show examples for the type of information that can be obtained from rotationally elastic and rotationally inelastic scattering experiments. I will show how our results compare with state-of-the-art DFT based calculations and briefly present a new direction we are examining, which is the possibility of extracting empirically based 6d potential energy surfaces directly from measurements.

[1] Nat. Comms.8, 15357 (2017) [2] Nat. Comms.11, 3110 (2020) [3] Nat. Comms.13, 2287 (2022)

This talk is part of the Physics and Chemistry of Solids Group series.

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• All Cavendish Laboratory Seminars
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• Neurons, Fake News, DNA and your iPhone: The Mathematics of Information
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