Near-threshold electron emission from impact of slow van der Waals clusters and fullerene ions on clean gold

Abstract

Atomically clean polycrystalline gold has been bombarded by slow cluster ions (N2)+n (n≤120), Ne+n (n≤100), and Cq+60,70 (q=1–4) at kinetic energies from the apparent electron emission thresholds up to 6 kV times the cluster charge (qe). The resulting electron yields have been derived from the corresponding electron emission statistics. Grossly different electron yields were found for different cluster species of about equal masses and velocities, which is attributed to different partitions of the initial cluster kinetic energy among (a) inelastic binary collision processes involving cluster constituents and surface atoms, and (b) intramolecular vibrational excitation in the cluster ions (where possible). We found emission threshold velocities of ∼1×104 m/s, which is a lower velocity than where emission was observed in most other studies previously conducted. For (N2)+n cluster ions, clear evidence for a nonlinear behavior (i.e., increasing electron emission per cluster constituent with increasing cluster size) has been found.