THEORY OF LASER-STIMULATED SURFACE PROCESSES: MASTER EQUATION APPROACH

We review our recent work on the development of the master equation approach to the theory of laser-stimulated surface processes. This approach focusses attention on the competition between the various possible rate processes involved. We first derive general reduced master equations for a system subjected to an external time-dependent field and then apply them to various surface processes. We consider both processes involving one electronic state (IR laser-stimulated desorption and diffusion, for example) and processes involving two electronic states (UV/visible laser-stimulated processes). The theoretical results on IR laser-stimulated desorption are used to analyze experimental results on the CO₂ laser-stimulated desorption of pyridine from Ag surfaces.