Velocity distribution function of Na released by photons from planetary surfaces

TL;DR

This study compares different velocity distribution models for sodium atoms released by photon-stimulated desorption from planetary surfaces, finding the Weibull distribution best fits experimental data and reflects the non-thermal nature of the process.

Contribution

It evaluates three models for Na atom velocity distributions and identifies the Weibull distribution as the most physically valid and statistically fitting model for PSD.

Findings

Weibull distribution provides the best fit to experimental data.

Na atom velocities are non-thermal and require an offset in models.

The fit parameters are consistent with surface physics expectations.

Abstract

In most surface-bound exospheres Na has been observed at altitudes above what is possible by thermal release. Photon stimulated desorption of adsorbed Na on solid surfaces has been commonly used to explain observations at high altitudes. We investigate three model velocity distribution functions (VDF) that have been previously used in several studies to describe the desorption of atoms from a solid surface either by electron or by photon bombardment, namely: the Maxwell-Boltzmann (M-B) distribution, the empirical distribution proposed by [Wurz et al., 2010] for PSD, and the Weibull distribution. We use all available measurements reported by [Yakshinskiy and Madey, 2000, 2004] to test these distributions and determine which one fits best (statistically) and we discuss their physical validity. Our results show that the measured VDF of released Na atoms are too narrow compared to Maxwell-Boltzmann fits with supra-temperatures as suggested by [3]. We found that a good fit with M-B is only achieved with a speed offset of the whole distribution to higher speeds and a lower temperature, with the offset and the fit temperature not showing any correlation with the surface temperature. From the three distributions we studied, we find that the Weibull distribution provides the best fits using the temperature of the surface, though an offset towards higher speeds is required. This work confirms that Electron-Stimulated Desorption (ESD) and Photon-Stimulated Desorption (PSD) should produce non-thermal velocity (or energy) distributions of the atoms released via these processes, which is expected from surface physics. We recommend to use the Weibull distribution with the shape parameter kappa=1.7, the speed offset v0=575 m/s, and the surface temperature to model PSD distributions at planetary bodies.