Deposition of endohedral fullerenes from a laser evaporation cluster source

Mass spectra of fullerenes doped with transition and rare earth metals (Sc, Y, La, Ce, Gd) reveal a variety of singly and doubly doped metallofulleren es. Characteristic oscillations of the relative mass intensities of the La- and Y-metallofullerenes suggest the existence of two different isomers of the corresponding doubly doped fullerenes. The yield of the plasma-generate d clusters is sufficient to be used for an in situ deposition of mass-selec ted metallofullerenes onto a surface. In particular, endohedral fullerenes with 60 or less atoms are accessible for deposition by means of a laser vap orization cluster source. Scanning tunneling microscopy has been used to im age Ce@C-60 and La@C-60 on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite.