Atom Scattering from Disordered Surfaces in the Sudden Approximation: Double Collisions Effects and Quantum Liquids

TL;DR

This paper extends the Sudden Approximation for atom-surface scattering to include double collisions and quantum liquid surfaces, enabling new insights into complex surface disorder with minimal additional computational effort.

Contribution

It introduces generalized schemes for the Sudden Approximation that incorporate double collisions and quantum liquids, broadening its applicability.

Findings

Inert atom scattering can probe complex surface disorder.

The new schemes are computationally efficient.

Potential for studying previously unexplored surface phenomena.

Abstract

The Sudden Approximation (SA) for scattering of atoms from surfaces is generalized to allow for double collision events and scattering from time-dependent quantum liquid surfaces. The resulting new schemes retain the simplicity of the original SA, while requiring little extra computational effort. The results suggest that inert atom (and in particular He) scattering can be used profitably to study hitherto unexplored forms of complex surface disorder.