Physics
Scientific paper
Mar 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007phdt.........1c&link_type=abstract
Ph.D Dissertation
Physics
Dust, Interstellar Medium, Molecules, Experiment
Scientific paper
Central to this thesis is the chemistry occurring on dust grain surfaces leading to the formation of molecules in the ISM, and, in particular, the laboratory simulation of formation mechanisms and formation rates. Surface chemistry plays a crucial role in the ISM because it produces key species that are not formed in gas-phase reactions at an efficient rate. Among them, molecular hydrogen (H_2) is by far the most important.
In this work (Chapter 3), I shall address the experimental investigation of H_2 formation on diverse samples of amorphous silicates. The experimental work was conducted in the Physics Department laboratories at Syracuse University, New York, as part of the most successful programme of experiments so far to study the processes involved in the formation of molecular hydrogen on a variety of dust analogue materials, also including poly-crystalline olivine, amorphous carbon, and ices. The experiments were carried out through mass spectrometry and TPD techniques and under conditions that come as close as technically feasible to the ones in the most relevant ISM environments, namely, under ultra high vacuum pressures (low 10e-10 torr) and at surface temperatures between 6 and 30 K. Experimental studies of H_2 formation on amorphous olivines are of major concern in grain-surface chemistry because amorphous silicates are believed, together with carbonaceous materials, to be the most realistic analogues of bare cosmic dust surfaces in diffuse clouds. In my doctorate work I carried out numerous experiments on a set of several samples of amorphous olivines of the type (Mg_x,Fe_1-x)_2SiO_4, namely, samples made up of diverse amounts of Mg and Fe.
Besides, in Chapter 4, I shall address the project and the construction of a FT-RAIRS facility that is to integrate the existent research apparatus in the laboratory at Syracuse University. I shall first discuss the FT-IR spectroscopy, then I shall focus on a particular technique used in surface science called RAIRS. Its physical principle will be discussed as well. Finally, I shall describe ''piece by piece'', the design and the construction of the FT-RAIRS arrangement.
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