Supersonic Molecular Beams Studies of Surfaces

Supersonic Molecular Beams allow to select energy, angle of incidence and, to some extent, vibrational and rotational state of gas phase molecules. They are therefore employed for state resolved studies of the adsorption dynamics and of chemical reactions. Most recent developments regard the possibility to select the adsorption state as well as to affect chemical reactions by the rotational alignment of the reactants and to improve the quality of organic films, built by relatively large molecules, by using supersonic beams for the deposition process.