SIMULATIONS OF C60 COLLISIONS WITH A HYDROGEN-TERMINATED DIAMOND (111) SURFACE

The stability of C60 during collisions with a hydrogen-terminated diamond {111} surface was studied by using molecular dynamics simulations. At a collision energy of 150 eV only nonreactive collisions occur. At higher energies nonreactive scattering and two types of reactive collisions occur: (1) exchange of one or more atoms between the molecule and the surface; (2) chemisorption of the C60 molecule. No dissociation of the rebounding molecules was observed on the time scale of the simulations. However, the scattered molecules contain a large amount of internal energy, which suggests that dissociation may occur at longer times.