Elasticity, internal excitation, and charge transfer during grazing scattering of keV fullerenes from a LiF(1 0 0) surface

C60+ molecular ions with energies of 5–45 keV are scattered under grazing angles of incidence of 1–3° from a LiF(1 0 0) surface. From the analysis of polar angular distributions, fragment size distributions, and ion fractions for scattered projectiles, information on elastic, internal excitation, and charge transfer processes are derived. The results are compared to classical molecular dynamics simulations, which reproduce the angular distributions on a quantitative level, but the internal excitation only in part. In addition to the transfer of the normal energy loss to internal degrees of freedom of the molecule, an excitation is identified and interpreted as resonant coherent excitation in the oscillating electric field in front of the surface experienced by the moving projectile. The ion fractions are in accord with a complete suppression of charge transfer between fullerene ion and surface.