Sputtering of sodium and potassium from nepheline: Secondary ion yields and velocity spectra

Silicates are the dominant surface material of many Solar System objects, which are exposed to ion bombardment by solar wind ions and cosmic rays. Induced physico-chemical processes include sputtering which can contribute to the formation of an exosphere. We have measured sputtering yields and velocity spectra of secondary ions ejected from nepheline, an aluminosilicate thought to be a good analogue for Mercury's surface, as a laboratory approach to understand the evolution of silicate surfaces and the presence of Na and K vapor in the exosphere. Experiments were performed with highly charged ion beams (keV/u-MeV/u) delivered by GANIL using an imaging XY-TOF-SIMS device under UHV conditions. The fluence dependence of sputtering yields gives information about the evolution of surface stoichiometry during irradiation. From the energy distributions N(E) of sputtered particles, the fraction of particles which could escape from the gravitational field of Mercury, and of those falling back and possibly contributing to populate the exosphere can be roughly estimated.