2007/02/28 by R. Martinez-Casado, J. L. Vega, A. S. Sanz +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.stat-mech #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.98.216102
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 216102 (2007) · 4 pages, 2 figures (slightly revised version)
arxiv created 2007/05/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
The experimental line shape broadening observed in adsorbate diffusion on metal surfaces with increasing coverage is usually related to the nature of the adsorbate-adsorbate interaction. Here we show that this broadening can also be understood in terms of a fully stochastic model just considering two noise sources: (i) a Gaussian white noise accounting for the surface friction, and (ii) a shot noise replacing the physical adsorbate-adsorbate interaction potential. Furthermore, contrary to what could be expected, for relatively weak adsorbate-substrate interactions the opposite effect is predicted: line shapes get narrower with increasing coverage.