A molecular dynamics study of ion bombardment induced ejection of C2H4 from Ni(111): Relationships of the angle distributions of the translational and rotational angular momentum of ejected C2H4 to surface structure

Molecule liftoff from surfaces

Molecular dynamics simulations have been used to model the kiloelectronvolt particle bombardment of organic layers on metal substrates such as occurs in the analytical techniques of secondary ion mass spectrometry and fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry. Vignettes of insights gained from the simulations along with comparisons to experimental data are presented in this Account. Topics include intact molecular ejection vs fragmentation, prediction of reaction pathways, influence of the substrate, and quantitative predictions of energy and angular distributions.