SIMULATION OF HEAVY-ION INDUCED DESORPTION OF BIOMOLECULES FROM SURFACES USING THE POPCORN MODEL Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Trajectory calculations have been performed to study the validity of the recently proposed popcorn model of Williams and Sundqvist [Phys. Rev. Letters 58 (1987) 1031] for the heavy ion induced desorption of biomolecules from surfaces. The adsorbed biomolecule is assumed to be vibrationally excited by the flux of low energy secondary electrons created by the passage of the primary ion through the solid. The post-excitation vibrational motions of the peptide units in the biomolecule are followed with classical trajectories using a one-dimensional chain containing 40 coupled anharmonic oscillators as a model for the biomolecule desorption system. The expansion of the biomolecule due to the excitation of the anharmonic bonds leads to desorption in a fashion analogous to an exploding kernel of popcorn. This popcorn mechanism is found to lead to a factor of three enhancement of the desorption probability over a model of the biomolecule which contains only harmonic internal bonds. 1988.

published proceedings

  • SURFACE SCIENCE

author list (cited authors)

  • LEE, S. L., & LUCCHESE, R. R.

citation count

  • 1

complete list of authors

  • LEE, SL||LUCCHESE, RR

publication date

  • January 1988