Out-of-plane scattering of Ar from Ag(111)

We present the resulting out-of-plane scattering data for the collisions of Ar with an Ag(111) surface, using a classical molecular dynamics simulation with a potential energy surface based on the local density approximation. The incidence energies for Ar vary from 0.03 eV up to 22 eV with an incidence angle of 40°. Results are presented for a static surface and for a surface with a finite temperature of 600 K. For the low incidence energies, the peak of the angular scattering distributions lies in the plane of incidence and the in-plane width is larger than the out-of-plane one. In the high energy range, the peaks of the scattering distributions appear not in the plane of incidence and for the static surface, clear out-of-plane surface rainbow peaks appear. For a surface temperature of 600 K, the surface rainbow peaks diminish and the angular distributions smooth. The total angular scattering distributions yield the relative amount of in-plane scattering and that ranges from 10 to 40%, depending on the incidence energy. A maximum of the in-plane scattering occurs for an incidence energy of 1 eV, where the effective surface corrugation has a minimum.