Experiments on io-induced nucleation to clarify a new mechanism of cosmic dust formation

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26610137
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Solid earth and planetary physics
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Watanabe Naoki 北海道大学, 低温科学研究所, 教授 (50271531)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): UETA Hirokazu 独立行政法人物質・材料研究機構, 若手国際研究センター, 研究員 (20705248)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: イオン誘起微粒子核生成 / クラスター形成 / イオントラップ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Interstellar dust particles play an important role in chemical evolution of interstellar matter. Although the details of dust formation are still unknown, it is generally believed that they form in the gas phase via homogeneous nucleation. In contrast, the present study focuses on inhomogeneous ion-induced nucleation in the gas phase in which activation barriers for cluster formation decrease significantly by ion-ion induced dipole interaction. We have constructed an rf ion trap to study the cluster ion formation as the first stage of nucleation. We have been successful in storing several kinds of molecular ions and clusters and monitoring the successive reaction in the rf trap.

Free Research Field

星間化学物理