van der Waals effects in GIFAD for light atoms on insulating surfaces

Synopsis We theoretically address grazing incidence fast atom diffraction (GIFAD) for light atoms on insulating alkali-halide surfaces. We combine a description of the projectile-surface interaction obtained from density functional theory (DFT) calculations with a semiquantum treatment of the dynamics. We obtain simulated intensity profiles and compare them with reported experimental GIFAD patterns. For different systems and incidence conditions we focus on the relevance of van der Waals (vdW) interactions on the diffraction patterns.