Publications by Rainer Beck | EPFL Graph Search

Quantum interference observed in state-resolved molecule-surface scattering

Although the dynamics of collisions between a molecule and a solid surface are ultimately quantum mechanical, decohering effects owing to the large number of interacting degrees of freedom typically obscure the wavelike nature of these events. However, a p ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)2025

Surface-induced vibrational energy redistribution in methane/surface scattering depends on catalytic activity

Rainer Beck, Christopher Scott Reilly, Patrick Floss

Recent state-to-state experiments of methane scattering from Ni(111) and graphene-covered Ni(111) combined with quantum mechanical simulations suggest an intriguing correlation between the surface-induced vibrational energy redistribution (SIVR) during the ...

2023

Quantum state-resolved methane scattering from Ni(111) and NiO(111) by bolometer infrared laser tagging: The effect of surface oxidation

Rainer Beck, Christopher Scott Reilly, Bo-Jung Chen, Patrick Floss

We describe a novel UHV state-to-state molecule/surface scattering apparatus with quan- tum state preparation of the incident molecular beam and angle-resolved quantum state detection of the scattered molecules. State resolved detection is accomplished usi ...

2023

Probing Water Dissociation and Oxygen Replacement on Partially Oxygen-Covered Cu(111) by Reflection Absorption Infrared Spectroscopy

Rainer Beck, Mateusz Suchodol, Harmina Vejayan

The presence of chemisorbed oxygen on the Cu(111) surface is known to strongly reduce the activation barrier for water dissociation as compared to bare Cu(111). Here, we present direct experimental evidence for the hydrogen abstraction mechanism responsibl ...

2023

Methylidyne Adsorption on Pt(211) Probed by Reflection Absorption Infrared Spectroscopy (RAIRS)

Rainer Beck, Ana Gutiérrez González, Harmina Vejayan

Methylidyne, CH(ads), adsorbed on a Pt(211) surface and its interaction with chemisorbed hydrogen atoms was studied by reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS). Methylidyne was formed on Pt(211) by methane dissociation from a molecular beam foll ...

2022

Dissociative Sticking Probability of Methane on Pt(110)-(2×1)

Rainer Beck, Ana Gutiérrez González

In this work, we revisit the dissociative sticking of methane on Pt(110)-(2×1) using quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) calculations and supersonic molecular beam (SMB) experiments. Experimentally, we apply the King and Wells method and the reflection absorp ...

2021

Infrared Activities of Adsorbed Species on Metal Surfaces: The Puzzle of Adsorbed Methyl (CH3)

Rainer Beck, Harmina Vejayan

Reflection–absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) is widely used to identify molecular adsorbates on metals during surface chemical reactions, but the interpretation of RAIRS data can be difficult with experiment alone. Here, we reveal from first-princip ...

2021

Highly Efficient Activation of HCl Dissociation on Au(111) via Rotational Preexcitation

Rainer Beck

The probability for dissociation of molecules on metal surfaces, which often controls the rate of industrially important catalytic processes, can depend strongly on how energy is partitioned in the incident molecule. There are many example systems where th ...

2021

State-to-state methane-surface scattering as a probe of catalytic activity

Rainer Beck, Maarten Eduard van Reijzen, Bo-Jung Chen, Jörn Werdecker

Quantum state-resolved scattering experiments for methane molecules colliding with a catalytically active nickel surface are compared to scattering from a nickel surface passivated by a single layer of graphene. The vibrational state distribution of the sc ...

2020

Quantum state and surface-site-resolved studies of methane chemisorption by vibrational spectroscopies

Rainer Beck, Ana Gutiérrez González

The combination of quantum state-specific reactant preparation by infrared laser pumping with surface-site-resolved detection of chemisorbed reaction products by Reflection Absorption Infrared Spectroscopy (RAIRS) enables highly detailed studies of molecul ...

2020