Photodesorption and physical properties of CO ice as a function of temperature

¹ Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Ctra. de Ajalvir, km 4, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
e-mail: munozcg@cab.inta-csic.es
² Department of Physics, National Central University, Jhongli District, Taoyuan City 32054, Taiwan
³ Instituto de Tecnologías Físicas y de la Información, Leonardo Torres Quevedo, ITEFI (CSIC), c/ Serrano 144, 28006 Madrid, Spain
⁴ INAF−Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, P.za Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo, Italy
⁵ Institute of Chemical Sciences, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, William Perkin Building G.19/G.28, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, EH14 4AS, Edinburgh, UK
⁶ Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA), CNRS UMR 7583, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Université Paris Diderot, Faculté des Sciences et Technologie, 61 avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94010 Créteil Cedex, France

Received: 13 January 2016
Accepted: 24 February 2016

Abstract

Context. Ice photodesorption has been the topic of recent studies that aim to interpret the abundances of gas-phase molecules, in particular CO, toward cold interstellar regions. But little is known about the effect of the ice’s physical properties on the photodesorption rate. The linear decrease observed in the photodesorption rate, as a function of increasing CO ice deposition temperature, was provisionally attributed to a more compact CO ice structure.

Aims. The goal of this work is to monitor the physical properties of solid CO as a function of ice deposition temperature. Then, we evaluate the possible link between the structure of ice and the ice’s photodesorption rate.

Methods. Infrared spectroscopy is an efficient tool to monitor the structural evolution of pure ices during warm-up or irradiation. The infrared absorption bands of molecular ice components observed toward various space environments allow for the detection of H₂O, CO, CO₂, CH₃OH, NH₃, etc. Typically, a pure ice that is composed of one of these species displays significant changes in their mid-infrared band profiles as a result of warm-up. But, at most, only very subtle changes appear in the narrow CO ice infrared absorption band as the result of warm-up. We, therefore, also used vacuum-ultraviolet spectroscopy of CO ice to monitor the effect of temperature in the physical properties of the ice. Finally, temperature-programmed desorption and photo-desorption experiments for different CO ice deposition temperatures were performed.

Results. Mid-infrared and vacuum-ultraviolet spectroscopy showed that warm-up of CO ice that is deposited at 8 K did not lead to structural changes. Only CO ice samples deposited at temperatures above 20 K displayed different spectroscopic properties compared to lower deposition temperatures. The observed gradual and linear drop in the photodesorption rate of CO ice, as a function of increasing ice deposition temperature in the 7 to 20 K range, is, therefore, not due to a gradual re-structuring toward a more compact and crystalline ice, which is only triggered above 20 K and increases for higher deposition temperatures.

Conclusions. We suggest that this decrease of the photodesorption rate is related to the disorder of CO dipole molecules within the amorphous or glassy state, which influences the necessary transfer of photon energy from the first excited molecule to the desorbing molecule on the ice surface. The photodesorption yield of CO deposited at 20 K is about four times lower than at 7 K. Dust models should adopt CO photodesorption yields that are compatible with the thermal history of the cloud.