A theoretical and experimental study on translational and internal energies of H₂O and OH from the 157 nm irradiation of amorphous solid water at 90 K

The photodesorption of H₂O in its vibrational ground state, and of OH radicals in their ground and first excited vibrational states, following 157 nm photoexcitation of amorphous solid water has been studied using molecular dynamics simulations and detected experimentally by resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization techniques. There is good agreement between the simulated and measured energy distributions. In addition, signals of H⁺ and OH⁺ were detected in the experiments. These are inferred to originate from vibrationally excited H₂O molecules that are ejected from the surface by two distinct mechanisms: a direct desorption mechanism and desorption induced by secondary recombination of photoproducts at the ice surface. This is the first reported experimental evidence of photodesorption of vibrationally excited H₂O molecules from water ice.