Experimental Investigation about the Mechanism of Fission-Fragment Induced Desorption

Abstract

Abstract The physical processes involved in the fission-fragment induced desorption of molecular and atomic ions from surfaces have been investigated by measuring absolute ion yields, distributions of radial and axial initial energy components and isotopic effects. For this purpose several modifications of the time-of-flight spectrometer were put in practice. By studying multiple ion desorption per fission-fragment correlations between various molecular fragments were identified. The results are compared with predictions of reaction models. The observed phenomena are in agreement with a break-down of the polar-binding potential at the surface caused partially by the low energy electron plasma produced by the fission-fragment.