ENERGY PARTITION IN C60-DIAMOND-(111)-SURFACE COLLISIONS - A MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS SIMULATION

Collisions of C60 with hydrogen-terminated diamond-(111) surfaces were studied by molecular-dynamics simulations based on a semiempirical de nsity-functional approach. The dominating factor determining the energ y partition in the C60-diamond-(111)-surface collision at constant imp act energy is the orientation of the molecules relative to the initial impact points on the surface, In agreement with the experimental resu lts using velocity-selective time-of-flight mass spectroscopy the cent er-of-mass kinetic energies after the collisions are distributed aroun d a mean value which is only slightly affected by the initial impact e nergy. The final energy content of the C60's increases with the incide nt kinetic energy, depends strongly on the impact scattering topology, and yields a narrow distribution with increasing mean values in corre lation with lower center-of-mass kinetic energies.