Inelastic scattering in a local polaron model with quadratic coupling to bosons

We calculate the inelastic scattering probabilities in the wide band limit of a local polaron model with quadratic coupling to bosons. The central object is a two-particle Green's function which is calculated exactly using a purely algebraic approach. Compared with the usual linear interaction term a quadratic interaction term gives higher probabilities for inelastic scattering involving a large number of bosons. As an application we consider the problem hot-electron-mediated energy transfer at surfaces and use the delta self-consistent field extension of density-functional theory to calculate and compare coupling parameters and probabilities for exciting different vibrational modes of CO adsorbed on a Cu(100) surface.