Stochastic aspects of pattern formation during the catalytic oxidation of CO on Pd(111) surfaces (Q972259)

The paper presents experimental results on rare transitions between two states due to intrinsic noise between two states in a bistable surface reaction, namely the catalytic oxidation of CO on Pd(111) surfaces. The mean time scales involved are typically of order \(10^{4}\) s and the probability distribution shows two peaks over a large part of the bistable regime of this surface reaction. Direct measurements of the resulting CO\(_{2}\) rate are used as well as photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM) to characterize these rare transitions. On the basis of dynamic data recorded the probability density distributions for the CO\(_{2}\) rate are evaluated. The \(x-t\) plots obtained from PEEM measurements enable to describe the transitions, which are characterized by one wall moving through the field of view in PEEM measurements. The resulting probability distributions for the CO\(_{2}\) rate are plotted being strongly dependent on the value \(Y\) of the CO fraction in the reactant flux inside the bistable regime. It has been shown that the probability distribution is strongly asymmetric indicating that the two basins of attraction are rather different in depth and width. In the same time it follows from the PEEM measurements that there exists (i) a rather sharp and narrow domain wall going one way and (ii) rather wide and diffuse area characterizing the motion in the opposite direction. To have two basins of attraction in the bistable regime, which are rather different in nature, is reminiscent of other bistable systems of stochastic resonance such as optical bistability, although the time scales involved in the present system are entirely different.