Applications of fullerene beams in analysis of thin layers

Molecular dynamics computer simulations have been employed to model ejection of particles from Ag{1 1 1} metal substrate and thin benzene overlayer bombarded by fullerene cluster projectiles. The sputtering yields are analyzed depending on the size (from C20 up to C540) and the kinetic energy (5–20 keV) of a projectile. It has been found that for clean metal substrate bombarded by 15 keV projectiles the maximum ejection is stimulated by the impact of the C60 cluster. However, the size of the cluster projectile maximizing the yield depends on the kinetic energy of the cluster, shifting towards larger clusters as the impact energy increases. For a thin benzene overlayer, the yield increases monotonically with the size of the cluster within investigated range of fullerene projectiles and kinetic energies.