Reactions at Metal Surfaces Induced by Femtosecond Lasers, Tunneling Electrons, and Heating

Recent experiments with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions are beginning to provide us with a direct, microscopic understanding of the mechanisms and dynamics of reactions at metal surfaces. It is found that a unified picture can be used to describe desorption of molecules from a metal surface by conventional heating, radiation from a femtosecond laser, and current from the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. By adjusting the excitation source, control of the reaction pathways and product yields can be achieved.