  We study phonon-mediated adsorption and desorption of an electron at
dielectric surfaces with deep polarization-induced surface potentials where
multi-phonon transitions are responsible for electron energy relaxation.
Focusing on multi-phonon processes due to the nonlinearity of the coupling
between the external electron and the acoustic bulk phonon triggering the
transitions between surface states, we calculate electron desorption times for
graphite, MgO, CaO, (\text{Al}_2\text{O}_3), and (\text{SiO}_2) and electron
sticking coefficients for (\text{Al}_2\text{O}_3), CaO, and (\text{SiO}_2). To
reveal the kinetic stages of electron physisorption, we moreover study the time
evolution of the image state occupancy and the energy-resolved desorption flux.
Depending on the potential depth and the surface temperature we identify two
generic scenarios: (i)adsorption via trapping in shallow image states followed
by relaxation to the lowest image state and desorption from that state via a
cascade through the second strongly bound image state in not too deep
potentials and (ii)adsorption via trapping in shallow image states but followed
by a relaxation bottleneck retarding the transition to the lowest image state
and desorption from that state via a one step process to the continuum in deep
potentials.
