Monte Carlo simulation of energy dissipation of recombining hydrogen in a maze

Studies of 2-D atomic hydrogen at high densities on helium surfaces have been plagued by the heating of the surfaces due to recombination, which dissipates more than 52, 000K for each recombining pair of atoms in the cell. When hydrogen recombines on a surface, it deposits less than 4% of its energy at the point of recombination and the rest is carried off by the excited molecule. We have designed a maze to absorb most of this energy, and carried out a Monte Carlo simulation to show that approximately 87% of the energy is dissipated in the maze, preventing the surface from getting excessively heated, even at high surface densities. This simulation varies the number of inelastic collisions with the maze wall for complete relaxation, the fraction of elastic collisions, and the angular distribution of excited molecules desorbing from the walls.