Germanium hydrogen adsorption-desorption

The slower rate (by a factor of 1.8) of decomposition of deuterogermane shows then that deuterium desorbs more slowly (by the same factor) than hydrogen from a germanium surface. This factor is consistent with normal zero-point energy differences for hydrogen isotop>es. The existence of a kinetic isotope effect for desorption is what is expected from a normal activated thermal-bond breaking and does not support the idea that the activation energy corresponds to some barrier which electrons have to surmount, possibly caused by a barrier layer due to adsorption surface states (5). 

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