Charge transfer, excitation and evaporation in low energy collisions of simple metal clusters and fullerenes with atomic targets

Abstract

We present charge transfer, excitation and evaporation cross sections in low energy collisions of small and medium-size metal clusters (Nanq+, Linq+) and C60 with atomic targets (H+, He2+ and Cs) using a molecular close-coupling formalism and a post-collision rate equation model. The theoretical model benefits from different time scales associated with the collision and the internal motion of the cluster nuclei. The collision description includes the many-electron aspect of the problem and makes use of a realistic cluster potential obtained with density functional theory and a spherical jellium model. The evaporation model takes into account the non-harmonic effects of the ionic motion and describes sequential evaporation to any order within the framework of the microcanonical statistical model of Weisskopf. We show that the relative abundance of different fragments depends critically on the cluster temperature and the spectrometer time of flight window. We have found good agreement with recent experimental results [Eur. Phys. J. D 12 (2000) 185].