Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 2481, 1998
M. Hassel, K. Svensson, M. Persson, and S. Andersson,
Department of Applied Physics, Chalmers University of Technology and
Goteborg University, S-412 96
Goteborg, Sweden
Blackbody radiation induced desorption rates of H2 and D2 physisorbed on a Cu(510) surface were determined via electron-energy-loss measurements. Intense dipole-excited vibrational transitions to high-lying bound levels in the physisorption well indicate the possibility of direct infrared photodesorption. We have calculated rates for such a mechanism from spectroscopic data for H2 adsorbed on the (100)-like terraces and find excellent agreement with the experimental results