The Effective Phonon Frequency and Mass Involved in Electron-Phonon Coupling at Metal Surfaces from Helium Atom Scattering.
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina29634, United States.
- 2Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Paseo Manuel de Lardizábal 4, 20018Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
- 3Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, 20125Milano, Italy.
- 4Instituto de Física Fundamental, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Serrano 123, 28006Madrid, Spain.
Abstract
In this work, we propose a new formulation of the classic Debye-Waller theory for the scattering of He atoms from metal surfaces. The probe atoms are repelled by the surface free-electron density just above the first surface atomic layer and the modulation of the surface charge density produced by lattice vibrations occurs via the electron-phonon coupling. In the Debye-Waller exponent, the surface-projected phonon spectrum is reduced to that of an effective single phonon branch responsible for the total electron-phonon coupling. This is characterized by an effective surface phonon frequency and an effective surface atom mass, which are extracted from the high and low surface temperature limits. Whether an acoustic or optical phonon branch is considered, a Debye or Einstein model for the surface can be assumed, respectively, leading to simple relationships between the effective parameters. The Einstein model is shown to work well for the copper surfaces (110), (113), (001) and (111), according to the HAS data reported by Lapujoulade et al., while for the clean and oxidized Nb(001) surfaces, the analysis of the HAS data recently reported by Arias, Sibener et al., suggests a dominant role of the surface acoustic phonons in the surface electron-phonon interaction.
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BibTeX
@article{manson2026effective,
title = {{The Effective Phonon Frequency and Mass Involved in Electron-Phonon Coupling at Metal Surfaces from Helium Atom Scattering.}},
author = {J R Manson and G Benedek and S Miret-Artés},
journal = {The journal of physical chemistry letters},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1021/acs.jpclett.6c01733},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42915467},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The Effective Phonon Frequency and Mass Involved in Electron-Phonon Coupling at Metal Surfaces from Helium Atom Scattering.
AU - J R Manson
AU - G Benedek
AU - S Miret-Artés
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - The journal of physical chemistry letters
DO - 10.1021/acs.jpclett.6c01733
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42915467
AB - In this work, we propose a new formulation of the classic Debye-Waller theory for the scattering of He atoms from metal surfaces. The probe atoms are repelled by the surface free-electron density just above the first surface atomic layer and the modulation of the surface charge density produced by lattice vibrations occurs via the electron-phonon coupling. In the Debye-Waller exponent, the surface-projected phonon spectrum is reduced to that of an effective single phonon branch responsible for the total electron-phonon coupling. This is characterized by an effective surface phonon frequency and an effective surface atom mass, which are extracted from the high and low surface temperature limits. Whether an acoustic or optical phonon branch is considered, a Debye or Einstein model for the surface can be assumed, respectively, leading to simple relationships between the effective parameters. The Einstein model is shown to work well for the copper surfaces (110), (113), (001) and (111), according to the HAS data reported by Lapujoulade et al., while for the clean and oxidized Nb(001) surfaces, the analysis of the HAS data recently reported by Arias, Sibener et al., suggests a dominant role of the surface acoustic phonons in the surface electron-phonon interaction.
SN - 1948-7185
ER -