Desorption of H⁻, O⁻ and OH⁻ Ions During Impact of Very Low Energy Electrons on Surfaces

Abstract

Large variations in H⁻, O⁻ and OH⁻ desorption yields, from the same aluminum crystal saturated with water molecule, suggest that additional charge exchanges followed the initial bond breaking. Ejected with similar kinetic energies, the heavy ions encounter increased neutralizations in spite of their high electron affinities. In addition the reported experiments show that preliminary electron bombardment often remain essential to raise the efficiency of the low energy desorption process. A variation of the surface work function suggests that important reorganizations occur during the electron impact on the investigated surfaces.