Core-level XPS spectra of fullerene, highly oriented pyrolitic graphite, and glassy carbon

Abstract

The C 1s spectra of fullerene C 60, highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG) and amorphous carbon (a-C) have been measured using X-ray photoemission. The assumed background due to the inelastic scattering of electrons of these spectra has been subtracted by the Tougaard’s method. The relative intensities and the energy positions for the core-level satellites have been determined. For C 60, a comparison of the low energy π type shake-up satellites gives good agreement between theory and experiment. Also, the energies of these features for fullerene and glassy carbon are very similar, whereas the corresponding energies for HOPG are somewhat larger, presumably, because of the higher density of the latter. Moreover, the atomic force microscopy (AFM) study indicates that the C 60 samples consist of a thick layer of large clusters on the Si(111) surface, which is in line with the molecular character of the XPS spectrum. Furthermore, the broad high energy satellite does not consist of a single plasmon but of many components due to collective excitations characteristic of molecules and solids. These features are discussed in the light of theoretical excitation energies.