Surface charges and quantum reflection of hydrogen-isotope beams at grazing incidence

Abstract

Experiments with cryogenic beams of hydrogen isotopes (hydrogen (H), deuterium (D), and tritium (T)) can be used to study quantum reflection from solid dielectric mirrors. Most dielectric surfaces carry trapped electric charges whose field polarizes the incident atom. We study theoretically how such charges, distributed randomly, in clusters, with compensation over a finite length, or in order, change specular reflection and diffuse scattering of H, D, and T at grazing incidence on typical dielectric mirrors (SiO$_2$/Si and MgF$_2$), for longitudinal velocities of 100--300~m/s and normal velocities of 3--100~cm/s which might become available soon in grazing incidence experiments. Starting from the exact coupled-channel equations, we show that the specular wave feels only the laterally averaged polarization potential, which is fixed by the structure factor of the charges and, for uncorrelated charges, is an inverse-square tail $-C_2/z^2$. The exact solution replaces the linear threshold law $1-\Rr\propto\vperp$ by the fractional power $\vperp^{2ν}$, $ν=(1/4-ζ)^{1/2}$, with the coupling $ζ\propto C_2$; for weak coupling, this appears as a logarithmic velocity dependence, and for $ζ>1/4$, the reflection coefficient oscillates log-periodically. At the surface charge density of $10^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$, absorption increases by up to 26\% for SiO$_2$/Si and by a factor of two to three for MgF$_2$; the effect increases with atomic mass, saturates for compensated charges, and is accompanied by diffuse scattering below $10^{-3}$ of charge-induced loss. We also formulate the condition of complete absorption at the solid surface.