Mapping the aliphatic hydrocarbon content of interstellar dust in the Galactic plane

We implement a new observational method for mapping the aliphatic hydrocarbon content in the solid phase in our Galaxy, based on spectrophotometric imaging of the 3.4 mu m absorption feature from interstellar dust. We previously demonstrated this method in a field including the Galactic Centre cluster. We applied the method to a new field in the Galactic Centre where the 3.4 mu m absorption feature has not been previously measured and we extended the measurements to a field in the Galactic plane to sample the diffuse local interstellar medium, where the 3.4 mu m absorption feature has been previously measured. We have analysed 3.4 mu m optical depth and aliphatic hydrocarbon column density maps for these fields. Optical depths are found to be reasonably uniform in each field, without large source-to-source variations. There is, however, a weak trend towards increasing optical depth in a direction towards b = 0 degrees in the Galactic Centre. The mean value of column densities and abundances for aliphatic hydrocarbon were found to be about several x 10(18) cm(-2) and several tens x 10(-6), respectively for the new sightlines in the Galactic plane. We conclude that at least 10-20 per cent of the carbon in the Galactic plane lies in aliphatic form.