H2O and O(3PJ) photodesorption from amorphous solid water deposited on a lunar mare basalt

H2O (ν = 0) and O(3PJ=2,1,0) desorbates were measured with resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization following 157-nm irradiation of amorphous solid water (ASW) deposited on a lunar mare basalt. Both H2O photodesorption and O(3PJ) photodissociation products of ASW were studied in the attempt to better understand the competition between photodesorption and photodissociation of water in the condensed phase on a lunar surface. The oxygen atom time-of-flight (TOF) spectrum was measured as a function of spin-orbit state, H2O exposure, and 157-nm irradiation time. Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions with translational temperatures of 10,000 K, 1800 K, 400 K, and 89 K fit the four TOF components. For high H2O exposures, diffusion out of pores in the lunar substrate made a large portion of the O(3PJ) signal appear to be sub-thermal. Water depletion cross sections were measured at exposures between 0.1 and 10 Langmuir (1 L = 10−6 Torr s). These cross sections decreased with increasing coverage and matched previously measured cross sections from a lunar impact melt breccia. Additionally, non-resonant ionization was employed to detect vibrationally excited water indirectly through its fragments. The OH+ fragment of H2O (ν*) and the O(3PJ) photodissociation product increased in intensity during prolonged irradiation as hydroxyl groups accumulated on the surface and then recombined. For an initial exposure of 5 L H2O, after reaching maximum signal, the cross sections for H2O (ν*) and O(3P2) depletion were measured to be 1.2 × 10−19 cm2 and 6.7 × 10−20 cm2, respectively.