2010 Volume 8 Pages 6-16
A long standing unsolved puzzle is the wide range of experimentally determined frequency factors for adsorbate diffusion spanning twelve orders of magnitude which are only poorly explained by modern quantum theories of surface diffusion (QTSD) based on ab initio potential energy surfaces (refs. [1]-[4]). This contribution investigates whether decoherence mechanisms, neglected in QTSD, can shed some light on these discrepancies. We suggest a quantum-mechanical theory treating the entanglement of adsorbates with their environment (phonons, electron-hole pairs, plasmons, gravitons) [5]. Time dependent wave packet evolution and quantum Zeno effect (permenant “measurement” by specific environmental excitations) are investigated. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2010.6]
