Evaluation of interatomic potentials for noble gas atoms from rainbow scattering under axial channeling at Ag(1 1 1) surface by computer simulations based on binary collision approximation

The rainbow angles corresponding to pronounced peaks in the angular distributions of scattered projectiles with small angle, attributed to rainbow scattering (RS), under axial surface channeling conditions are strongly dependent on the interatomic potentials between projectiles and target atoms. The dependence of rainbow angles on normal energy of projectile energy to the target surface that has been experimentally obtained by Schüller and Winter (SW) (2007) for RS of He, Ne and Ar atoms from a Ag(1 1 1) surface with projectile energies of 3–60 keV was evaluated by the three-dimensional computer simulations using the ACOCT code based on the binary collision approximation with interatomic pair potentials. Consequently, the ACOCT results employing the Moliere pair potential with screening length correction close to adjustable one of O’Connor and Biersack (OB) formula are almost in agreement with the experimental ones, being self-consistent with the SW’s ones analyzed by computer simulations of classical trajectory calculations as RS from corrugated equipotential planes based on continuum potentials including the Moliere pair potential with screening length correction of the OB formula.