A paper by the PCMT team featured in Physical Review Letters (Editors' suggestion) and Physics Magazine

12/07/2023 PCMT Actualités scientifiques Parutions

The authors theoretically confirm experimental observations on the VUV photodesorption of interstellar analogues of CO ices, thus highlighting an essential elementary mechanism at the molecular level.

A collaborative effort between research groups from the University of Lille (PCMT/PhLAM) and Sorbonne University (LERMA), in the framework of the ANR PIXyES project, has achieved a significant breakthrough in understanding the UV-induced desorption of carbon monoxide (CO) from molecular CO ice in cold regions of the universe. By using a combined experimental and theoretical approach based on VUV laser experiments and Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics simulations, the mechanism behind the indirect desorption of CO from CO ice surface has been identified and characterized. The article, entitled " Mechanism of ultraviolet-induced CO desorption from CO ice : Role of vibrational relaxation Highlighted ", was published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters. This work was first selected as an "Editors’ Suggestion", then feature in general audience APS's Physics magazine under the title: "Carbon Monoxide Leaves Cosmic Ice with a Kick". These two highlights underline the importance and contribution of this study to our understanding of the physicochemistry of the interstellar medium.

Mechanism of ultraviolet-induced CO desorption from CO ice: Role of vibrational relaxation

Samuel Del Fré, Alejandro Rivero Santamaría, Denis Duflot, Romain Basalgète, Géraldine Féraud, Mathieu Bertin, Jean-Hugues Fillion, and Maurice Monnerville

Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 238001 – Published 6 December 2023

Article : http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.238001

Synopsis : https://physics.aps.org/articles/v16/s173

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