Photodesorption from stainless steels

The photodesorption by low‐energy photons (hν≤6 eV) from three types of stainless steels is examined. For all these systems both CO and CO2 were observed to photodesorb with high yields: ≊10−3 molecules/photon for CO2 and ≊10−4 molecules/photon for CO at λ=250 nm. The observed threshold energies were found to be the same for all systems at E0 =2.92 eV for CO2 and E0=2.92–3.10 eV for CO.