Ion cluster desorption from frozen NH3 induced by impact of fast multi-charged ions

Cosmic ray impact on astrophysical ices: laboratory studies on heavy ion irradiation of methane

“…These desorption mechanisms compete with the gas condensation, thereby setting a steady-state chemistry condition within molecular clouds (Charnley et al 2001). Irradiation of astrophysical ices, such as H 2 O, CO 2 , CO, and NH 3 , by heavy ions have been recently investigated either by plasma desorption mass spectrometry (Collado et al 2004;Farenzena et al 2005;Ponciano et al 2006;Martinez et al 2006) or by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) (Seperuelo Duarte et al 2009Pilling et al 2010). This kind of data may be useful for estimating desorption rates of the interstellar grains attributed to HGCR (Bringa & Johnson 2004).…”

Characterization of clusters produced by 252Cf fission fragment impact on a N2 ice target

“…The experimental features of 252 Cf-PDMS can be found elsewhere [1,5,7,27]. Briefly, an N 2 ice target was grown by condensation of N 2 gas over an Au substrate at controlled low temperature (in the 30-40 K range).…”

“…Some insights on the cluster production and ionization mechanisms can be extracted from the fitting of the experimental population values, using the stability analysis results. We can assume that each series contributes exponentially to the mass spectra, since this behavior is characteristic of FF experiments [1,5,7,27]. Also, since the cluster mass varies almost linearly with its energy (see Fig.…”

“…The generation of ion clusters from several condensed gases has been recently studied by $60 MeV 252 Cf fission fragment (FF) impact on ice surfaces at controlled temperature [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Processes in which very fast and highly charged projectiles induce electronic sputtering on low-temperature condensed-gas solids (ices) are relevant since they occur in cometary's surfaces and outer-solar-system bodies [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Desorption of cluster ions from adsorbed methane under cryogenic condition by low-energy ion irradiation

“…It was proposed that organic and biological molecules such as amino acids and bases can be formed in space through these reactions [2][3][4][5]. For ion desorption, it was reported that large cluster ions are desorbed from frozen CO, CO 2 , H 2 O, NH 3 and their mixtures through electronic excitation when the target is irradiated with high-energy ions in the MeV order and fission fragments [4][5][6][7][8][9]. For low-energy ion irradiation, desorption of cluster ions from frozen N 2 by keV Ar + , Kr + , and Xe + ion irradiations was reported [10], and desorption of molecular ions from Ar/Xe and Ar/N 2 mixtures by 400 eV He + ion irradiation was also observed [11].…”