a molecule is desorbed into the vacuum volume, it is removed via the vacuum's pumping mechanism (re-adsorption is negligible). Hence, fewer molecules are available for desorption, and an increasing number of electrons are required to maintain constant desorption. One of the leading models on electron stimulated desorption is described by Peter Antoniewicz In short, his theory is that the adsorbate becomes ionized by the incident electrons and then the ion experiences an image charge potential which attracts it towards the surface. As the ion moves closer to the surface, the possibility of electron tunnelling from the substrate increases and through this process ion neutralisation can occur. The neutralised ion still has kinetic energy from before, and if this energy plus the gained potential energy is greater than the binding energy then the ion can desorb from the surface. As ionisation is required for this process, this suggests the atom cannot desorb at low excitation energies, which agrees with experimental data on electron simulated desorption. Understanding electron stimulated desorption is crucial for accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider, where surfaces are subjected to an intense bombardment of energetic electrons. In particular, in the beam vacuum systems the desorption of gases can strongly impact the accelerators performance by modifying the secondary electron yield of the surfaces. IR photodesorption IR photodesorption is a type of desorption that occurs when an infrared light hits a surface and activates processes involving the excitation of an internal vibrational mode of the previously absorbed molecules followed by the desorption of the species into the gas phase. One can selectively excite electrons or vibrations of the adsorbate or of the adsorbate-substrate coupled system. This relaxation of the bonds together with a sufficient energy exchange from the incident light to the system will eventually lead to desorption. Generally, the phenomenon is more effective for weaker-bound physisorbed species, which have a smaller adsorption potential depth compared to that of the chemisorbed ones. In fact, a shallower potential requires lower laser intensities to set a molecule free from the surface and make IR-photodesorption experiments feasible, because the measured desorption times are usually longer than the inverse of the other relaxation rates in the problem. Phonon activated desorption In 2005, a mode of desorption was discovered by John Weaver et al. that has elements of both thermal and electron stimulated desorption. This mode is of particular interest as desorption can occur