IR-Induced CO Photodesorption from Pure CO Ice and CO on Amorphous Solid Water

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a key component of the icy mantles that form on the surfaces of dust grains in the interstellar medium. In dense molecular clouds, where grain temperatures are around 10 K, CO freezes out as a nonpolar layer on top of H₂O ice. This CO plays an important role in the formation of complex organic molecules (COMs) through reactions with hydrogen atoms. Interstellar grains are also exposed to photons and charged particles that can both drive chemical reactions and promote desorption of molecules, providing an important link between the solid state reservoir of molecules and the gas phase. While several studies have considered UV photon driven desorption mechanisms, the UV component of the interstellar radiation field is strongly attenuated within dense clouds, with the internal cloud field being dominated by IR photons. We have used the FELIX IR Free Electron Laser (FEL) FEL-2 to irradiate a few monolayer film of CO deposited on the top of amorphous solid water (ASW) and compared the CO desorption yields to those obtained for a pure CO film. Infrared spectroscopy, combined with mass spectrometric detection of desorbing CO molecules, reveals that excitation of vibrational modes in the underlying ASW leads to significant CO desorption. This is in contrast to direct excitation of the stretching mode of CO which results in only inefficient desorption. The desorption efficiencies we derive indicate that energy transfer within ices on interstellar grains might provide an important route to IR photon-induced desorption of volatile species, such as CO.