Abstract

Understanding surface chemical kinetics is essential to the advancement of the frontiers of many vital technologies, such as semiconductor device fabrication and heterogeneous catalysis. This indisputable driving force, along with the rapid development of a large repertoire of atomic, molecular, and structural sensitive surface probes, has been responsible for the built-up of an immense literature on the chemical pathways and kinetics of a large number of molecules on an equally large number of solid surfaces. A typical example of a surface chemical study may involve the identification of surface chemical species and gas phase products in a certain parameter phase space, as well as the measurement of kinetic parameters for key reaction steps. This practice is widely employed today to tackle a seemingly inexhaustible number of important surface chemical problems. Such a pragmatic approach is by no means mundane since the problems we are tackling are increasingly more complex while the tools at hand are ever more powerful. However, to some in the field, obtaining chemical kinetics of another molecule on another surface is not as gratifying as taking perhaps even a blurred glimpse into the elementary chemical act responsible for the surface chemical reactivity. It is the purpose of surface reaction dynamics to probe and understand the elementary chemical acts responsible for the macroscopic kinetic behavior. Understanding at such a fundamental level may allow us not only to explain but also to predict surface reaction rates.

© 1998 Optical Society of America