M. Chabot

Energy loss by MeV carbon clusters and fullerene ions in solids

Abstract Energy losses by carbon clusters C p ( p ≤ 8) and fullerene ions C 60 in thin carbon foils have been measured in the energy range from 0.3 to 5.65 MeV/atom. A small enhancement in energy loss is obtained for carbon atoms in the clusters relative to single carbon ions at the same velocity. Very large pulse height defects have been observed in the energy response of a silicon detector bombarded by C 60 ions with energies ranging from 6 to 30 MeV.

Ion irradiation of carbonaceous interstellar analogues - Effects of cosmic rays on the 3.4 μm interstellar absorption band

Context. A 3.4 μm absorption band (around 2900 cm-1), assigned to aliphatic C-H stretching modes of hydrogenated amorphous carbons (a-C:H), is widely observed in the diffuse interstellar medium, but disappears or is modified in dense clouds. This spectral difference between different phases of the interstellar medium reflects the processing of dust in different environments. Cosmic ray bombardment is one of the interstellar processes that make carbonaceous dust evolve. Aims. We investigate the effects of cosmic rays on the interstellar 3.4 μm absorption band carriers. Methods. Samples of carbonaceous interstellar analogues (a-C:H and soot) were irradiated at room temperature by swift ions with energy in the MeV range (from 0.2 to 160 MeV). The dehydrogenation and chemical bonding modifications that occurred during irradiation were studied with IR spectroscopy. Results. For all samples and all ions/energies used, we observed a decrease of the aliphatic C-H absorption bands intensity with the ion fluence. This evolution agrees with a model that describes the hydrogen loss as caused by the molecular recombination of two free H atoms created by the breaking of C-H bonds by the impinging ions. The corresponding destruction cross section and asymptotic hydrogen content are obtained for each experiment and their behaviour over a large range of ion stopping powers are inferred. Using elemental abundances and energy distributions of galactic cosmic rays, we investigated the implications of these results in different astrophysical environments. The results are compared to the processing by UV photons and H atoms in different regions of the interstellar medium. Conclusions. The destruction of aliphatic C-H bonds by cosmic rays occurs in characteristic times of a few 108 years, and it appears that even at longer time scales, cosmic rays alone cannot explain the observed disappearance of this spectral signature in dense regions. In diffuse interstellar medium, the formation by atomic hydrogen prevails over the destruction by UV photons (destruction by cosmic rays is negligible in these regions). Only the cosmic rays can penetrate into dense clouds and process the corresponding dust. However, they are not efficient enough to completely dehydrogenate the 3.4 μm carriers during the cloud lifetime. This interstellar component should be destroyed in interfaces between diffuse and dense interstellar regions where photons still penetrate but hydrogen is in molecular form.

Charge and current-sensitive preamplifiers for pulse shape discrimination techniques with silicon detectors

New charge- and current-sensitive preamplifiers coupled to silicon detectors and devoted to studies in nuclear structure and dynamics have been developed and tested. For the first time shapes of current pulses from light charged particles and carbon ions are presented. Capabilities for pulse shape discrimination techniques are demonstrated.

Swift heavy ion irradiation of water ice from MeV to GeV energies

Context. Cosmic ray ion irradiation affects the chemical composition of and triggers physical changes in interstellar ice mantles in space. One of the primary structural changes induced is the loss of porosity, and the mantles evolve toward a more compact amorphous state. Previously, ice compaction was monitored at low to moderate ion energies. The existence of a compaction threshold in stopping power has been suggested.Aims. In this article we experimentally study the effect of heavy ion irradiation at energies closer to true cosmic rays. This minimises extrapolation and allows a regime where electronic interaction always dominates to be explored, providing the ice compaction cross section over a wide range of electronic stopping power.Methods. High-energy ion irradiations provided by the GANIL accelerator, from the MeV up to the GeV range, are combined with in-situ infrared spectroscopy monitoring of ice mantles. We follow the IR spectral evolution of the ice as a function of increasing fluence (induced compaction of the initial microporous amorphous ice into a more compact amorphous phase). We use the number of OH dangling bonds of the water molecule, i.e. pending OH bonds not engaged in a hydrogen bond in the initially porous ice structure as a probe of the phase transition. These high-energy experiments are combined with lower energy experiments using light ions (H, He) from other facilities in Catania, Italy, and Washington, USA.Results. We evaluated the cross section for the disappearance of OH dangling bonds as a function of electronic stopping power. A cross-section law in a large energy range that includes data from different ice deposition setups is established. The relevant phase structuring time scale for the ice network is compared to interstellar chemical time scales using an astrophysical model.Conclusions. The presence of a threshold in compaction at low stopping power suggested in some previous works seems not to be confirmed for the high-energy cosmic rays encountered in interstellar space. Ice mantle porosity or pending bonds monitored by the OH dangling bonds is removed efficiently by cosmic rays. As a consequence, this considerably reduces the specific surface area available for surface chemical reactions.

Heavy ion irradiation of crystalline water ice - Cosmic ray amorphisation cross-section and sputtering yield

Under cosmic irradiation, the interstellar water ice mantles evolve towards a compact amorphous state. Crystalline ice amorphisation was previously monitored mainly in the keV to hundreds of keV ion energies. We experimentally investigate heavy ion irradiation amorphisation of crystalline ice, at high energies closer to true cosmic rays, and explore the water-ice sputtering yield. We irradiated thin crystalline ice films with MeV to GeV swift ion beams, produced at the GANIL accelerator. The ice infrared spectral evolution as a function of fluence is monitored with in-situ infrared spectroscopy (induced amorphisation of the initial crystalline state into a compact amorphous phase). The crystalline ice amorphisation cross-section is measured in the high electronic stopping-power range for different temperatures. At large fluence, the ice sputtering is measured on the infrared spectra, and the fitted sputtering-yield dependence, combined with previous measurements, is quadratic over three decades of electronic stopping power. The final state of cosmic ray irradiation for porous amorphous and crystalline ice, as monitored by infrared spectroscopy, is the same, but with a large difference in cross-section, hence in time scale in an astrophysical context. The cosmic ray water-ice sputtering rates compete with the UV photodesorption yields reported in the literature. The prevalence of direct cosmic ray sputtering over cosmic-ray induced photons photodesorption may be particularly true for ices strongly bonded to the ice mantles surfaces, such as hydrogen-bonded ice structures or more generally the so-called polar ices.

Shape analysis of current pulses delivered by semiconductor detectors: A new tool for fragmentation studies of high velocity atomic clusters and molecules

Abstract Shape analyses of current pulses delivered by semiconductor detectors under impact of high velocity atomic clusters have been performed for the first time. We show in this paper that the shape of the current pulse depends sensitively on the cluster size. When the cluster is fragmented, the obtained signal is found to result from the sum of signals associated with individual fragment impacts so that recognition of the fragmentation pathway is made possible in an unambiguous way. Application to the extraction of the 29 fragmentation channels of neutral C 9 clusters is presented.

Vacuum ultraviolet of hydrogenated amorphous carbons - II. Small hydrocarbons production in Photon Dominated Regions

Context. Hydrogenated amorphous carbons (a–C:H) are a major component of the carbonaceous solids present in the interstellar medium. The production and existence of these grains is connected in particular with the balance between their photolysis, radiolysis, and hydrogenation. During grain processing, H2 and other small organic molecules, radicals, and fragments are released into the gas phase. Aims. We perform photolytic experiments on laboratory produced interstellar a–C:H analogues to monitor and quantify the release of species and compare to relevant observations in the interstellar medium. Methods. Hydrogenated amorphous carbon analogues at low temperature are exposed to ultraviolet (UV) photons, under ultra-high vacuum conditions. The species produced are monitored using mass spectrometry and post irradiation temperature-programmed desorption. Additional experiments are performed using deuterated analogues and the species produced are unambiguously separated from background contributions. We implement the laboratory measured yields for the released species in a time dependent model to investigate the effect of the UV photon irradiation of hydrogenated amorphous carbons in a photon dominated region, and estimate the associated time scale. Results. The UV photolysis of hydrogenated amorphous carbons leads to the production of H2 molecules and small hydrocarbons. The model shows that the photolytic evolution of a–C:Hs in photon dominated regions, such as the Horsehead Nebula, can raise the abundance of carbonaceous molecules by several orders of magnitude at intermediate visual extinctions, i.e., after the C maximum and before the dense cloud conditions prevail where models generally show a minimum abundance for such carbonaceous species. The injection time peak ranges from a thousand to ten thousand years in the models, considering only the destruction of such grains and no re-hydrogenation. This time scale is consistent with the estimated advection front of a photon dominated region, which replenishes it with freshly exposed material.

Impact of particles on the Planck HFI detectors: ground-based measurements and physical interpretation

The Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) surveyed the sky continuously from August 2009 to January 2012. Its noise and sensitivity performance were excellent (from 11 to 40 aW Hz-1), but the rate of cosmic-ray impacts on the HFI detectors was unexpectedly higher than in other instruments. Furthermore, collisions of cosmic rays with the focal plane produced transient signals in the data (glitches) with a wide range of characteristics and a rate of about one glitch per second. A study of cosmic-ray impacts on the HFI detector modules has been undertaken to categorize and characterize the glitches, to correct the HFI time-ordered data, and understand the residual effects on Planck maps and data products. This paper evaluates the physical origins of glitches observed by the HFI detectors. To better understand the glitches observed by HFI in flight, several ground-based experiments were conducted with flight-spare HFI bolometer modules. The experiments were conducted between 2010 and 2013 with HFI test bolometers in different configurations using varying particles and impact energies. The bolometer modules were exposed to 23 MeV protons from the Orsay IPN Tandem accelerator, and to 241Am and 244Cm α-particle and 55Fe radioactive X-ray sources. The calibration data from the HFI ground-based preflight tests were used to further characterize the glitches and compare glitch rates with statistical expectations under laboratory conditions. Test results provide strong evidence that the dominant family of glitches observed in flight are due to cosmic-ray absorption by the silicon die substrate on which the HFI detectors reside. Glitch energy is propagated to the thermistor by ballistic phonons, while thermal diffusion also contributes. The average ratio between the energy absorbed, per glitch, in the silicon die and thatabsorbed in the bolometer is equal to 650. We discuss the implications of these results for future satellite missions, especially those in the far-infrared to submillimeter and millimeter regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

REACTIONS FORMING C, C n = 2, 4H(0, +), AND C3H IN THE GAS PHASE: SEMIEMPIRICAL BRANCHING RATIOS

The aim of this paper is to provide a new set of branching ratios (BRs) for interstellar and planetary chemical networks based on a semiempirical model. We applied, instead of zero-order theory (i.e., only the most exoergic decaying channel is considered), a statistical microcanonical model based on the construction of breakdown curves and using experimental high velocity collision BRs for their parameterization. We applied the model to ion-molecule, neutral-neutral, and ion-pair reactions implemented in the few popular databases for astrochemistry, such as KIDA, OSU, and UMIST. We studied the reactions of carbon and hydrocarbon species with electrons, He+, H+, CH+, CH, C, and C+ leading to intermediate complexes of the type C n = 2, 10, C n = 2, 4H, C3H2, C_{n=2,10}^+, C n = 2, 4H+, or C3H_2^+. Comparison of predictions with measurements supports the validity of the model. Huge deviations with respect to database values are often obtained. Effects of the new BRs in time-dependent chemistry for dark clouds and for photodissociation region chemistry with conditions similar to those found in the Horsehead Nebula are discussed.

Statistical universal branching ratios for cosmic ray dissociation, photodissociation, and dissociative recombination of the C, CH and C3H2 neutral and cationic species

Context. Fragmentation-branching ratios of electronically excited molecular species are of first importance for the modeling of gas phase interstellar chemistry. Despite experimental and theoretical efforts that have been done during the last two decades there is still a strong lack of detailed information on those quantities for many molecules such as Cn ,C n Ho r C 3H2. Aims. Our aim is to provide astrochemical databases with more realistic branching ratios for Cn (n = 2t o 10), Cn H( n = 2t o 4), and C3H2 molecules that are electronically excited either by dissociative recombination, photodissociation, or cosmic ray processes, when no detailed calculations or measurements exist in literature. Methods. High velocity collision in an inverse kinematics scheme was used to measure the complete fragmentation pattern of electronically excited Cn (n = 2 to 10), Cn H( n = 2t o 4), and C 3H2 molecules. Branching ratios of dissociation where deduced from those experiments. The full set of branching ratios was used as a new input in chemical models and branching ratio modification effects observed in astrochemical networks that describe the dense cold Taurus Molecular Cloud-1 and the photon dominated Horse Head region. Results. The comparison between the branching ratios obtained in this work and other types of experiments showed a good agreement. It was interpreted as the signature of a statistical behavior of the fragmentation. The branching ratios we obtained lead to an increase of the C3 production together with a larger dispersion of the daughter fragments. The introduction of these new values in the photon dominated region model of the Horse Head nebula increases the abundance of C3 and C3H, but reduces the abundances of the larger Cn and hydrocarbons at a visual extinction AV smaller than 4. Conclusions. We recommend astrochemists to use these new branching ratios. The data published here have been added to the online database KIDA (KInetic Database for Astrochemistry, http://kida.obs.u-bordeaux1.fr).