Dynamics of atom scattering from ⁴He nanoclusters

Abstract.

We present a microscopic theory and results of atom scattering calculations to determine the dispersion of surface modes (ripplons) of superfluid helium-4 nanodroplets, expanding previous work [J. Chem. Phys. 115, 10161 (2001)]. A quantum transport formalism is adapted to the many-body scattering problem, yielding both elastic and inelastic fluxes. We demonstrate that, in analogy to the dynamic structure function S(k,ω) obtained from neutron scattering, a dynamic structure function σ(k,ω) can be obtained from ³He scattering. The ³He dynamic structure function σ(k,ω) is sensitive to surface dynamics, whereas the neutron dynamic structure function S(k,ω) is dominated by bulk-like excitations, in particular by rotons. Unlike for neutron-scattering, the total inelastic cross section for atom-scattering on ⁴He nanodroplets is large which we believe makes experimental detection feasible. We also show that scattering identical particles, i.e. ⁴He atoms, does not provide information about the dispersion of surface modes. Instead, inelastically scattered ⁴He atoms preferably lose roughly half their energy.