C2H6 scattering from LiF(0Â 0Â 1): Influence of the molecular anisotropy on rainbow scattering in both intensity and speed distributions

We have measured the angle-resolved intensity and speed distributions of C2H6 scattered from LiF(0 0 1) along the [1 0 0] azimuthal direction, the largest structural corrugation direction, to investigate the effect of the molecular anisotropy on the gas-surface interaction at the corrugated surface. While clear rainbow feature is observed in the mean energy angular distribution, no rainbow feature is detected in the intensity angular distribution. From the comparisons of the obtained results to the calculated predictions based on the simple classical theory of the ellipsoid-washboard model, the effect of the molecular anisotropy is found to play a crucial role in the rainbow feature. With an increase in the extent of the molecular anisotropy such as that of C2H6 as compared with rare gas atoms, the integration of the intensity angular distributions for various molecular orientations results in the smearing of the rainbow feature on the corrugated surface. The rainbow scattering in the mean energy angular distribution, however, is not completely smeared out.