THE MECHANISM OF SURFACE DIFFUSION OF H AND D ATOMS ON AMORPHOUS SOLID WATER: EXISTENCE OF VARIOUS POTENTIAL SITES

To understand elementary processes leading to H-2 formation, and the hydrogenation and deuteration reactions of adsorbed species on dust grains in dense clouds, we experimentally investigated the diffusion of atomic hydrogen and deuterium on amorphous solidwater (ASW) at temperatures of 8-15 K. The present study extended our previous study for selective detections of H and D atoms, and of H-2 (J = 0 and 1) and D-2 (J = 0 and 1) molecules adsorbed on ASW using both photo-stimulated desorption and resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization, to investigate potential sites on ASW for diffusion, recombination dynamics, and the diffusion mechanism of H and D atoms. Our results demonstrate that the ASW surface contains various potential sites that can be categorized into at least three groups: very shallow, middle-, and deep-potential sites, with diffusion activation energies of <= 18, 22 (23 meV for D atoms), and >= 30 meV, respectively. The present study pictured the outline of H-2 formation on cosmic ice dust at low temperatures: H atoms landing on the dust will diffuse rapidly at the abundant shallow and middle sites on ASW, and finally become trapped at deep sites. The H atoms that arrive next recombine with such trapped H atoms to yield H-2 molecules. The small isotopic difference between the diffusion of H and D atoms on ASW indicates that the diffusion mechanism can be explained by thermal hopping, at least at middle-potential sites.