Decoherence in fast atom diffraction from surfaces

Diffraction of fast atoms from crystal surfaces at grazing incidence (GIFAD) has now been observed on all types of materials, from wide band gap insulators to metals, including semiconductors. Since mainly the (slow) motion normal to the surface is important diffraction patterns are comparable to those obtained in thermal energies atomic diffraction (TEAS), however, the specific scattering geometry of GIFAD has a strong influence on decoherence phenomena. The contribution of atomic vibrations is much less pronounced than in TEAS but other sources of decoherence such as electronic excitations, clearly observed on metals, can participate due to the comparatively large projectile velocity parallel to the surface. We present here simple models that describe these decoherence effects. The results are in good agreement with the experimental results.