Abstract
The effect of dielectric screening of a substrate by an overlayer is calculated. Both the overlayer and substrate are modeled as dielectric continua which are then treated by linearized hydrodynamics. The effect of dielectric screening is a shift of the plane to which the total van der Waals interaction is referenced. It is found that models of the atom-surface interaction based upon the pairwise summation of atom-atom potentials underestimate the total van der Waals interaction as a result of ignoring dielectric screening. Detailed calculations are then carried out for helium interacting with a rare-gas-coated silver surface.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 437-443 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | The Journal of chemical physics |
Volume | 83 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1985 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Physics and Astronomy
- Physical and Theoretical Chemistry