Morphology of the solid water synthesized through the pathway D + O2 studied by the sensitive TPD technique

Abstract

We report on an experimental study on the formation of water, through the D + O2 pathway, on a sample of amorphous solid water, i.e. a realistic analogue of the surface of the interstellar grains of dense clouds. For improving our experimental conditions we use deuterium instead of hydrogen. We obtain, using both Temperature-Programmed Desorption Spectroscopy and Infrared Spectroscopy, that the morphology of the nascent water ice is mostly compact. We compare our results with those obtained previously by Oba et al. and show that the first technique is more effective in probing the morphology of amorphous water ice. We propose that the formation of compact ice is due to the heat of reactions which lead to the formation of water molecules. Water is synthesized, through the D + O2 pathway, on a film of compact amorphous solid water and on a porous substrate for comparison purposes. We show that in this latter case a gradual compaction of the sample takes place upon formation of new water molecules. We compare this reduction of water ice porosity with that one obtained by Accolla et al., due to recombination of deuterium atoms sent on the surface of an amorphous porous ice sample, and show that the compaction of the sample as a consequence of the water formation appears clearly more efficient.