Electron-induced chemistry and sputtering of volatile species from amorphous and crystalline water ice

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Mishra, Yogeshwar Nath, Chandra, Sankhabrata, Gudipati, Murthy S., Henderson, Bryana, Hanstorp, Dag, Yung, Yuk L.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866916619370889216
author Mishra, Yogeshwar Nath
Chandra, Sankhabrata
Gudipati, Murthy S.
Henderson, Bryana
Hanstorp, Dag
Yung, Yuk L.
author_facet Mishra, Yogeshwar Nath
Chandra, Sankhabrata
Gudipati, Murthy S.
Henderson, Bryana
Hanstorp, Dag
Yung, Yuk L.
contents Electron irradiation of water-rich ices plays a significant role in initiating the chemical and physical processes on the surface of airless icy bodies in radiation environments such as Europa and Enceladus, as well as on the Moon, comets, and asteroids interacting with the solar wind. The sputtering process by electrons and ions leads to chemical modification and outgassing of their icy surfaces and the subsequent formation of a tenuous atmosphere. Though electron-sputtering yields are known to be lower compared to ion-sputtering yields, one needs to also account for their differential fluxes. In our experiments, the electron-induced sputtering yields of all the gaseous species H2, O, OH, H2O, and O2 are investigated for electron energies lower than 2 keV in terms of partial pressure vs. time of irradiation. The effective averaged change in partial pressure of the desorbed species is converted to the number of sputtered atoms or molecules per second per cm2 from the ice, and then to the sputtering yields (number of species sputtered per electron). Our data agrees well with the previously reported data for the sputtering of O2 and H2O yield for the amorphous ice. We also find that crystalline ice shows significantly lower sputtering yields when compared to amorphous ice, in agreement with the observation of similar trends in the literature. Our work indicates that sputtering yields per keV of O, OH, O2, and H2O drop with increasing electron energy from 0.5 keV to 2 keV.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_12780
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Electron-induced chemistry and sputtering of volatile species from amorphous and crystalline water ice
Mishra, Yogeshwar Nath
Chandra, Sankhabrata
Gudipati, Murthy S.
Henderson, Bryana
Hanstorp, Dag
Yung, Yuk L.
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Space Physics
Electron irradiation of water-rich ices plays a significant role in initiating the chemical and physical processes on the surface of airless icy bodies in radiation environments such as Europa and Enceladus, as well as on the Moon, comets, and asteroids interacting with the solar wind. The sputtering process by electrons and ions leads to chemical modification and outgassing of their icy surfaces and the subsequent formation of a tenuous atmosphere. Though electron-sputtering yields are known to be lower compared to ion-sputtering yields, one needs to also account for their differential fluxes. In our experiments, the electron-induced sputtering yields of all the gaseous species H2, O, OH, H2O, and O2 are investigated for electron energies lower than 2 keV in terms of partial pressure vs. time of irradiation. The effective averaged change in partial pressure of the desorbed species is converted to the number of sputtered atoms or molecules per second per cm2 from the ice, and then to the sputtering yields (number of species sputtered per electron). Our data agrees well with the previously reported data for the sputtering of O2 and H2O yield for the amorphous ice. We also find that crystalline ice shows significantly lower sputtering yields when compared to amorphous ice, in agreement with the observation of similar trends in the literature. Our work indicates that sputtering yields per keV of O, OH, O2, and H2O drop with increasing electron energy from 0.5 keV to 2 keV.
title Electron-induced chemistry and sputtering of volatile species from amorphous and crystalline water ice
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Space Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.12780