The scattering and extinction properties of nanodiamonds

TL;DR

This paper investigates the scattering and extinction properties of nanodiamonds in the interstellar medium using computational models, suggesting nanodiamonds could be a component of interstellar dust affecting observed extinction features.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed modeling of nanodiamond optical properties and their impact on interstellar extinction, including core-mantle structures and composite dust models.

Findings

Nanodiamonds show negligible IR to near-UV extinction and a sharp far-UV rise.

Models with nanodiamond cores modify the 2175 Å feature, matching some observations.

A three-component dust model with nanodiamonds fits galactic extinction data well.

Abstract

The study of scattering and extinction properties of possible nanodiamond grains in the ISM are reported. Calculations using Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) for varying ellipsoidal shapes and sizes from 2.5 to $10 nm$ are considered. Nanodiamonds show negligible extinction from IR to near-UV and very sharp far-UV rise. Comparison with observations rule out possibility of independent nanodiamond dust but point towards possibility of nanodiamonds as a component in the ISM. Radiation induced transformations may lead to carbonaceous grains with different core and mantles. So calculations are also performed for a core-mantle target model with nanodiamond core in graphite mantles. The graphite extinction features get modified with the peak at 2175 \AA{} being lowered, broadened, blue shifted and accompanied by enhanced extinction in the far-UV. Such variations in the 2175 \AA{} band and simultaneous far-UV rise are observed along some sources. A three component dust model incorporating silicate, graphite and graphite with nanodiamond core is also considered. The model extinction compares very well with the average galactic extinction in the complete range from 0.2 to $10 \mu m^{-1}$. The best fit requires small size and small number of nanodiamonds.