Related papers: Photodesorption of water ice: a molecular dynamics…
The detection of high gas-phase abundances of SO2 and SO in the cold envelope of an intermediate mass protostar suggests that these molecules might form on icy dust grains and subsequently desorb to the gas phase by non-thermal desorption…
Nonthermal desorption of molecules from icy grain surfaces is required to explain molecular line observations in the cold gas of star-forming regions. Chemical desorption is one of the nonthermal desorption processes and is driven by the…
UV-induced photodesorption of ice is a non-thermal evaporation process that can explain the presence of cold molecular gas in a range of interstellar regions. Information on the average UV photodesorption yield of astrophysically important…
CO$_2$ is a major component of the icy mantles surrounding dust grains in planet and star formation regions. Understanding its photodesorption is crucial for explaining gas phase abundances in the coldest environments of the interstellar…
A new experimental set-up INterStellar Ice-Dust Experiment (INSIDE), was designed for studying cosmic grain analogues represented by ice-coated carbon- and silicate-based dust grains. In the new instrument, we can simulate physical and…
Non-thermal desorption of inter- and circum-stellar ice mantles on dust grains, in particular ultraviolet photon-induced desorption, has gained importance in recent years. These processes may account for the observed gas phase abundances of…
Desorption of H2O films ranging from 53 nanometres to 101 micrometre thicknesses have been investigated using a quartz-crystal microbalance (QCM) and temperature-programmed desorption. Three desorption stages are observed belonging to…
Photodissociation is the dominant removal process of molecules in any region exposed to intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This includes diffuse and translucent interstellar clouds, dense photon-dominated regions, high velocity shocks, the…
Aims. The mobility of H atoms on the surface of interstellar dust grains at low temperature is still a matter of debate. In dense clouds, the hydrogenation of adsorbed species (i.e., CO), as well as the subsequent deuteration of the…
Ice mantles detected on the surface of dust grains toward the coldest regions of the interstellar medium can be photoprocessed by the secondary ultraviolet (UV) field present in dense cloud interiors. In this work, we present UV-irradiation…
Molecular clouds are the cold regions of the Milky Way where stars form. They are enriched by rather complex molecules. Many of these molecules are believed to be synthesized on the icy surfaces of the interstellar submicron-sized dust…
We investigated the behavior of H$_2$, main constituent of the gas phase in dense clouds, after collision with amorphous solid water (ASW) surfaces, one of the most abundant chemical species of interstellar ices. We developed a general…
The desorption characteristics of molecules on interstellar dust grains are important for modelling the behaviour of molecules in icy mantles and, critically, in describing the solid-gas interface. In this study, a series of laboratory…
We model the temperature and chemical structure of molecular clouds as a function of depth into the cloud, assuming a cloud of constant density n illuminated by an external FUV (6 eV < E < 13.6 eV) flux G_0 (scaling factor in multiples of…
To explain grain growth and destruction in warm media, ice mantle formation and sublimation in cold media, and gas line emission spectroscopy, astrochemical models must mimic the gas--solid abundance ratio. Ice-sublimation mechanisms…
The overabundance of gas molecules in the coldest regions of space point to a non-thermal desorption process. Laboratory simulations show an efficient desorption of CO ice exposed to ultraviolet radiation, known as photodesorption, which…
The relative desorption energies of CO and N$_2$ are key to interpretations of observed interstellar CO and N$_2$ abundance patterns, including the well-documented CO and N$_2$H$^+$ anti-correlations in disks, protostars and molecular cloud…
In regions where stars form, variations in density and temperature can cause gas to freeze-out onto dust grains forming ice mantles, which influences the chemical composition of a cloud. The aim of this paper is to understand in detail the…
We present experimental measurements of photodesorption from ices of astrophysical relevance. Layers of benzene and water ice were irradiated with a laser tuned to an electronic transition in the benzene molecule. The translational energy…
The VUV absorption cross sections of most molecular solids present in interstellar ice mantles with the exception of H2O, NH3, and CO2 have not been reported yet. Models of ice photoprocessing depend on the VUV absorption cross section of…