Detailed measurements of state resolved inelastic scattering of N-2 from Ru(0001) are reported for a wide range of initial energies (0-3 eV) and angles of incidence. The ion time-of-flight resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) detection scheme developed here and used with cw molecular beams simultaneously measures the internal quantum state and translational energy normal to the sample surface. Doppler broadening of the REMPI spectrum of scattered particles yields the dispersion in scattering out of plane. The results are qualitatively similar to inelastic N-2 scattering studies for a wide variety of other metal surfaces; i.e., no observable vibrational excitation, weak rotational excitation described as a Boltzmann distribution, strong surface excitation depending upon the incident normal energy, and an anticorrelation between rotational and surface excitation. The absence of any vibrational excitation at Eapproximate to3 eV is inconsistent with adiabatic model dynamics based on the ab initio potential-energy surface. It is, however, consistent with a strong nonadiabatic damping of vibration to electron-hole pairs in the region of the barrier. This same suggestion was previously found necessary to rationalize unusual dissociative adsorption and associative desorption of N-2 on Ru(0001). (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.