A study of fullerite ablation with energetic pulsed electrons

We report the ablation of fullerite films deposited on metallic substrates with 3 keV electron pulses generated in a specially designed pulsed discharge tube. During ablation the fragmented species were detected by emission spectroscopy. The emission spectra of C2 and C1∗ (CII) provide the signatures of C60 fragmentation. The vibrational temperature of the C2 emitted from the ablated fullerite is ∼12,700 ± 1160 K compared with ∼18,230 ± 1150 K for the graphite sample under similar conditions. The fullerite films were produced by vacuum sublimation on Aluminum, Iron and Copper substrates and characterized by Atomic force microscope, X-ray diffraction; Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The comparisons of electron ablation of fullerite films with that of graphite show the similarities and differences of carbon bonding in the caged structure of C60 with that of the planar graphene sheets of graphite.