Laser induced thermal desorption of carbon monoxide from Fe(110) surfaces

Thermal desorption of CO is induced by bombarding an Fe(110) surface with pulses of a neodymium glass laser. The maximum amplitude of the desorption signal is recorded by a mass spectrometer as a function of the laser pulse intensity and of the CO coverage for both single pulses and sequences of pulses. Since the half width of the laser pulses is only 30 ns the shape of the desorption signal is mainly determined by the time-of-flight of the desorbed particles. There is strong evidence that the latter obey a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of temperature T_d, identical in the low temperature range with the maximum surface temperature T_s. Above T_s = 600 K, however, T_d is smaller than T_s. The experimental observations are analyzed successfully with the first order rate equation for desorption.