Grazing scattering of fast C60+ ions from an Al(0 0 1) surface under axial surface channeling

10 keV C60+ clusters are scattered from a clean and flat Al(0 0 1) surface under a grazing angle of incidence. The angular distributions of clusters are observed as function of the azimuthal angle of rotation of the target close to the 〈1 1 0〉 direction in the surface plane. For sufficiently small impact energies with respect to the motion along the surface normal, fractions of fragmented clusters are small, and projectiles are specularly reflected from the topmost layer of surface atoms. For a slight detuning of the azimuthal angle of incidence with respect to the 〈1 1 0〉 direction, scattered C60 clusters show a characteristic azimuthal deflection in the opposite direction to the sense of rotation of the target surface. The data are analyzed in terms of computer simulations based on classical trajectories calculated from an effective interaction potential for C60+ clusters in front of the surface.