The efficient photodesorption of nitric oxide (NO) ices A laboratory
  astrophysics study
  The study and quantification of UV photon-induced desorption of frozen
molecules furthers our understanding of the chemical evolution of cold
interstellar regions. Nitric oxide (NO) is an important intermediate species in
both gas-phase and solid-phase chemical networks. In this work, we present
quantitative measurements of the photodesorption of a pure NO ice.We used the
tunable monochromatic synchrotron light of the DESIRS beamline of the SOLEIL
facility near Paris to irradiate NO ices in the 6 - 13.6 eV range and measured
desorption by quadrupole mass spectrometry.We find that NO photodesorption is
very efficient, its yield being around 1e-2 molecule per incident photon for UV
fields relevant to the diffuse and dense interstellar medium. We discuss the
extrapolation of our results to an astrophysical context and we compare
photodesorption of NO to previously studied molecules.
