O^- ESD dynamics from condensed N₂O

Dissocative electron attachment processes have been observed in O^- electron stimulated desorption from multilayer films of N₂O molecules condensed on polycrystalline platinum at 30 K. Kinetic energy distributions, fixed kinetic energy O^- yields and O^- yields are reported. The ion yields show dissociative attachment processes at 9 and 15 eV which are not observed in the O^- formation for isolated N₂O molecules. The kinetic energy distributions are broad and show that a value of about 0.5 eV is obtained for the most probable kinetic energy of O^- ions whatever the incident electron energy. This indicates that the desorption dynamics are driven by the dissociation dynamics of the N₂O^-* resonant states involved.