Molecule-Substrate Vibration of CO on Ni(100) Studied by Infrared-Emission Spectroscopy

Abstract

A novel infrared-emission technique has been used to make the first measurement of the linewidth of a molecule-substrate vibrational mode on a well characterized single-crystal surface. At saturation coverage, the observed linewidth of the C-Ni mode of CO on Ni(100) is 15 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. This result is in agreement with predictions for broadening due to deexcitation by two-phonon emission.