Studying the ejection of particles for realistic Mercury analog samples upon He impact
- 1Technische Universität Wien, Institut für Angewandte Physik, Wien, Austria (biber@iap.tuwien.ac.at)
- 2Current adress: University of California, Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, USA
- 3University of Bern, Physics Institute, Bern, Switzerland
The interaction between solar wind ions and the surface of rocky bodies leads to the release of material. This process of material ejection called ion sputtering contributes significantly to the formation of Mercury’s exosphere [1]. Building a quantitative understanding on how ions interact with the complex system that a rocky body represents is therefore a crucial task for correctly modeling the exosphere of Mercury. Specifically, the number of sputtered atoms as well as the distributions of emission angles and energies are of interest. Common codes that are able to calculate these quantities are based on Molecular Dynamics (MD) or the Binary Collision Approximation (BCA). The former are complex and computationally demanding but can yield precise results when set up correctly. The latter are much simpler and faster in their usage but require input parameters, which have to be carefully chosen to correctly describe experimental results [2]. The angular motion setup for sputtering measurements at TU Wien allows to perform experiments required to validate MD and BCA results for various types of ions and samples [3]. We will present sputter yields and distributions of sputtered particles for 4 keV He ions impinging the Mercury-relevant pyroxene enstatite (MgSiO3). In addition to the results obtained from irradiating amorphous thin films we show and discuss yields from pressed mineral pellets [4]. We thereby extend on typical approaches, where only thin films are investigated for their sputtering behavior under ion impingement [2, 5]. This information will lead to a better understanding of exosphere formation through particles released by solar wind interaction from the surfaces of Mercury and other exposed planetary bodies.
References
[1] Wurz P., et al.: Planet. Space Sci., 58, 1599, 2010.
[2] Szabo P. S., et al.: Astrophys. J., 891, 100, 2020.
[3] Biber H., et al.: EPSC2021, online, EPSC2021-526, 2021.
[4] Jäggi N., et al.: Icarus, 365, 114492, 2021.
[5] Hijazi H., et al.: J. Geophys. Res. Planets, 122, 1597, 2017.
How to cite: Biber, H., Szabo, P. S., Jäggi, N., Brötzner, J., Cupak, C., Cserveny, B., Voith, C., Galli, A., Wurz, P., and Aumayr, F.: Studying the ejection of particles for realistic Mercury analog samples upon He impact, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4995, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4995, 2022.
