SHI induced conducting tracks formation in C60

One hundred and twenty mega electron volts [120 MeV] of Au ion irradiation induced increase in conductivity at ion impact sites in C60, has been observed using conducting atomic force microscope (C-AFM). The current image shows the formation of ion tracks having much larger conductivity as compared to surroundings in C60 films on Si substrate. The increase in conductivity is attributed to the electronic energy loss induced polymerization and transformation from insulating C60 to conducting graphite like carbon around ion path. The unirradiated sample has a semiconducting nature of I–V characteristic, which shows an increased ohmic behavior with increasing fluence. This effect has been attributed to simultaneous imaging of more than one track at sites where very close/overlapping ion impacts take place.