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The physisorption of H2 on copper is discussed in the light of a recent theory of the helium-metal interaction. The theory relates the repulsive branch of the physisorption well to the scattering of individual evanescent band electrons by the ad-particle potential. Metal electrons are expelled from the region near the ad-particle and the band energy is driven up. The H2-Cu physisorption well is found to be 23 meV deep, and only very weakly dependent on the orientation of the molecular axis.
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Harris et al. (1983) studied this question.
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