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J. F. Rodriguez-Nieva et al. 2011 ApJ 743 L5 doi:10.1088/2041-8205/743/1/L5
J. F. Rodriguez-Nieva1, E. M. Bringa2, T. A. Cassidy3, R. E. Johnson4, A. Caro5, M. Fama4, M. J. Loeffler6, R. A. Baragiola4, and D. Farkas7
Show affiliationsPorous materials are ubiquitous in the universe and weathering of porous surfaces plays an important role in the evolution of planetary and interstellar materials. Sputtering of porous solids in particular can influence atmosphere formation, surface reflectivity, and the production of the ambient gas around materials in space. Several previous studies and models have shown a large reduction in the sputtering of a porous solid compared to the sputtering of the non-porous solid. Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the sputtering of a nanoporous solid with 55% of the solid density. We calculate the electronic sputtering induced by a fast, penetrating ion, using a thermal spike representation of the deposited energy. We find that sputtering for this porous solid is, surprisingly, the same as that for a full-density solid, even though the sticking coefficient is high.
atomic processes; methods: numerical; molecular processes; planets and satellites: surfaces; radiation mechanisms: general
Issue 1 (2011 December 10)
Received 2011 August 25, accepted for publication 2011 October 11
Published 2011 November 15
Total article downloads: 403
J. F. Rodriguez-Nieva et al. 2011 ApJ 743 L5
