LASER-PULSE EJECTION OF ORGANIC-MOLECULES FROM A MATRIX - LESSONS FROM FAST-ION-INDUCED EJECTION

Lessons learned from electronic sputtering by incident ions of condensed-gas solids and solids composed of biomolecules are applied to laser-pulse-induced ejection of biomolecules imbedded in a matrix of small molecules. In electronic sputtering by fast ions, single excitation desorption, thermally activated sputtering, and pressure-pulse sputtering have been observed. In addition, yields for ejected ions have been shown to exhibit trends different from yields for ejected neutrals. The parallel processes are considered for laser-pulse ejection of a matrix with imbedded molecules and expressions are given to examine the yield data.