Resonance Interaction Induced by Metal Surfaces Catalyses Atom Pair Breakage

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding how metal surfaces influence resonance interactions between atoms, revealing conditions that can lead to atom pair breakage through surface-induced forces.

Contribution

It introduces a new theory for retarded resonance interactions near metal surfaces and demonstrates how these interactions can cause atom pair dissociation.

Findings

Resonance interactions can become repulsive near ideal metal surfaces.

Near permeable surfaces, interactions tend to be more attractive.

Numerical examples show potential for atom pair breakage near metal surfaces.

Abstract

We present the theory for retarded resonance interaction between two identical atoms at arbitrary positions near a metal surface. The dipole-dipole resonance interaction force that binds isotropically excited atom pairs together in free space may turn repulsive close to an ideal (totally reflecting) metal surface. On the other hand, close to an infinitely permeable surface it may turn more attractive. We illustrate numerically how the dipole-dipole resonance interaction between two oxygen atoms near a metal surface may provide a repulsive energy of the same order of magnitude as the ground-state binding energy of an oxygen molecule. As a complement we also present results from density-functional theory.